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E ^ H L Y 



INDIANA TRIALS: 



AND SKETCHES. 



REMINISCENCES EY HON. 0. H. SMITH. 



THIRD THOUSAND. 



CINCINNATI: 

MOORE, WILSTAOH, KEYS & CO., Printers. 

25 West Fourth Street, 
1858. 






<^'V 



Eatered according to Act of Congress, August 6, 1857, bj 
Hon. 0. H. SMITH 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
District of Indiana. 



TO THE READER. 



,(*ART of the sketches contained in this book, were originally pub- 

list-.ed in the Indianapolis Daily Journal, edited by Berry R. Sulgrove, 

Esq., and were extensively re-pnblished by other papers in most of 

the States ; these have been revised and corrected by the author. 

Many of the sketches, all the letters, and part of the poems, have 

never been published before. Each sketch is complete and requires 

the reading of nothing previous to understand it. 

THE AUTHOR. 
Indianapolis, Ind., December 25th, 1857. 



>r' 












EARLY INDIANA TRIALS; 

AND SKETCHES. 

EEMINISCENCES BY HON. 0. H. SMITH. 



[Friday Moii.MNG, .July 3, 1857. 



The writer proposes to consume a leisure hour by calling upon his 
recollections of the early trials of important cases in Indiana, which 
may be interesting, at least to some of our pioneer settlers who are 
yet living witnesses of the truth of his reminiscences. He proposes 
to confine himself to the Third Judicial Circuit of the State, and to 
the time when the Hon. Miles C. Eggleston was Presiding Judge of 
the circuit. The Third Judicial Circuit included what was then 
known as the Whitewater country, and extended from the county of 
Jefferson north to the State of Michigan, some two hundred miles in 
length, and from the Ohio line on the east, to White River, some 
Fcventy-five miles west. The country was new, sparsely settled, and 
being on the western frontier, the towns and villages were filled with 
Indians, trading their peltries, wild game and moccasins ornamented 
with the quills of the porcupine, with the settlers, for calicoes, whisky, 
powder, lead, beads, and such other articles as met their fancy. The 
population of the country embraced by the circuit, was a hardy, 
fearless and generally honest, but more or less reckless people, such 
as are usually to be found advancing upon the frontiers from more 
civilized life, and consequently there were more collisions among them, 
more crimes committed calling for the action of the criminal courts, 
than is common in older settled and more civilized parts of the older 
States. 

The judiciary system at the time referred to was, like the country, 
in its infancy. The Circuit Court was composed of a president judge, 
elected by the Legislature, who presided in all the courts in the 
circuit, and two associate judges, elected in each county by the people. 
These " side judges," as they were then called, made no pretensions to 
anv particular knowledge of the law, but still they had the power to 
(5) 



b EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

over-rule the presiding judge, and give the opinion of the court, and 
sometimes they even " out-guessed " the president, giving the most pre- 
posterous reasons imaginable for their decisions, as, in one instance, that 
a writ of scire facias to revive a judgment, would not lie, unless it was 
sued out within a year and a day. The decision of the associates was 
affirmed in the Supreme Court, for other reasons of course. The 
court-houses were either frame or log buildings, arranged to hold the 
court in one end and the grand-jury in the other. The petit-jury 
being accommodated in some neighboring out-building, used for a 
kitchen of the neighboring inn, during vacation. The clerks had 
very little qualifications for their duties. Still they were honest, and 
the most of them could write more legibly than Rufus Choate, United 
States Senator. The sheriffs were elected by the people, as they are 
now, and seemed to have been selected as candidates on account of their 
fine voices to call the jurors and witnesses from the woods, from the 
door of the court building, and their ability to run down and catch 
ofFendersi The most important personages in the country, however, 
were the young lawyers, universally called " squires " by old and 
young, male and female. Queues were much in fashion, and nothing 
was more common than to see one of these young " squires," with a 
wilted rorum hat that had once been stiffened with glue in its better 
days, upon a head, from the back part of which hung a queue three 
feet long, tied from head to tip with an eel-skin, walking in evident 
superiority, in his own estimation, among the people in the court-yard, 
sounding the public mind as to his prospects as a candidate for the 
Legislature. There were no caucuses or conventions then. Every 
candidate brought himself out and ran upon his own hook. If he 
got beat, as the most of them did, he had nobody to blame but himself 
for becoming a candidate ; still he generally charged it upon his friends 
for not voting for him, and the next season, found him once more upon 
the track, sounding his own praises. 

The court-rooms in those days were prepared and furnished with 
much simplicity, and yet they seemed to answer all the purposes 
absolutely necessary to the due administration of justice. The building, 
as I have stated, generally contained two rooms — the court-room 
being the largest, — at one end of which there was a platform elevated 
some three feet, for the judges, with a long bench to seat them. These 
benches were very substantial in general, sufficient to sustain the most 
weighty judges ; yet on one occasion the bench gave way, and down 
came three fat, aldermanly judges on the floor. One of them, quite a 
wag, seeing the " squires " laughing, remarked — " Gentlemen, this is a 
mighty weak bench." The bar had their benches near the table of 



EAELY INDIANA. 7 

the clerk, and the crowd was kept back by a long pole fastened with 
withes at the ends. The "crowds" at that day thought the hold- 
ing of a court a great aifair. The people came hundreds of miles 
to see the judges, and hear the lawyers "plead," as they called it. 
On one occasion there came on to be tried before the jury an indictment 
for an assault and battery against a man for pulling the nose of another 
who had insulted him. The court-room was filled to suffocation. The 
two associate judges on the bench. The evidence had been heard, 
and public expectation was on tip-toe. All was silent as death, when 
my young friend, then " squire," afterward Judge Chas. H. Test, 
rose and addressed the court : " If the court please." He was here 
interrupted by Judge Winchell from the bench. " Yes, we do please ; 
go to the bottom of the case, young man. The people have come in 
to hear the lawyers plead." The young squire, encouraged by the 
kind response of the judge, proceeded to address the jury some three 
hours in excited eloquence upon the great provocation his client had 
received to induce his docile nature to bound over all legal barriers 
and take the prosecutor by the nose. All eyes were upon him, and as 
he closed, Judge Winchell roared out, " Capital ; I did not think it 
was in him ! " The jury returned a verdict of" not guilty," amid the 
rapturous applause of the audience. Court adjourned, and the people 
returned home to tell their children that they had heard the lawyers 
" plead." How different this from an incident that the writer witnessed 
in the city of Baltimore in the year 1828. Happening to arrive at 
Barnum's Hotel, too late for the Chesapeake boats to Philadelphia 
(there were no railroads then), and having to lie over till morninc:, 1 
accidentally strolled around to the United States Court-room. Curiosity 
led me to open the door and step in. The United States .Marshal politely 
gave me a seat. There was a venerable judge on the bench, a lawyer 
addressing the court, another taking notes of his speech. These 
three, and the marshal composed every person but myself in the room. 
They were all strangers. I asked the marshal who they were. " The 
judge," said he, "is Chief Justice Marshal; the gentlemen addressing 
the court is William Wirt, and the one taking notes is Koger B. 
Taney." Three of the most distinguished men in the United States, 
and yet in a city with a population of fifty thousand souls, they were 
unable to draw to the court-room a single auditor. I heard the 
arguments of these great men by mere accident, but I shall long 
retain a distinct recollection of them. 



8 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

[Saturday Morning, July 4, 1857. 

TRIAL OF FULLER. 

At the March term, 1820, of the Dearborn Circuit Court, Judge 
Eggleston took his seat on the bench, as the successor of the Hon. 
John Watts. The judge was a young Virginia lawyer, a cousin of the 
Hon. Wm. S. Archer, of the U. S. Senate. He was a fine scholar and 
a well read lawyer. His integrity and his moral courage were above 
suspicion, while his impartiality commended him to the approbation 
of all. He will long be remembered by the writer, one of the young 
members of the profession, for the judge was ever willing to hear all 
that could be said by the humblest member of the bar, and when he 
decided, even against him, his manner gave courage to increase prepa- 
ration for the next case. I received my license to practice law from 
his hand, after a short examination in person. His remarks in 
signing the license made a deep impression upon me. My means 
were exhausted, and it was a question of life or death with me. The 
judge kindly remarked, " Mr. Smith, I will sign your license, but you 
are only prepared to commence the study ; don't be discouraged, but per- 
severe in your studies and you may yet stand high in your profession." 

The March term (1820) of the Dearborn Circuit Court was memo- 
rable for the trial of Fuller for killing Warren. Palmer Warren, the 
deceased, was my room-fellow at our boarding-house while I was a 
student. He was a young, pleasant man, of good reputation. Fuller 
was his senior in years, also highly respectable. These young men, 
it seems, became attached to a young, though not handsome girl, with 
a broad English accent, and both proposed marriage. The young 
lady preferred Warren, and rejected Fuller, who, in the moment of 
excited feelings, shot Warren with a pistol, first ofiering him one to 
defend himself, which Warren refused to accept. The ball entered 
the left breast and penetrated the heart. Warren fell dead. I was 
not there at the time, but saw his vest afterward, with the bullet-hole 
through it. As these young men were highly respected in Lawrence- 
burgh, especially Fuller, who was a great favorite, the trial excited 
unusual interest. I was present at the trial. The young judge took his 
seat upon the bench for the first time. The prisoner was brought into 
court by Capt. Thomas Longly, the sheriflT, and took his seat in the box. 
He was dressed in black, except his white vest; his countenance com- 
posed, and his eye steady. Amos Lane and John Test appeared for the 
State, Daniel J. Caswell, Charles Dewey, Samuel Q. Richardson, John 
Lawrence and Merritt S. Craig, were of counsel for the prisoner. The 
jury was erapanneled with some difliculty. The evidence was pos- 



TRIAL OF o'bRIAN. 9 

itive and conclusive, still the arguments of counsel occupied several 
days. Every appeal that it was possible to make to tlie jury by the 
able counsel for the prisoner, was fully met by the closing speech of 
Mr. Lane for the State. The jury, after a short absence, returned a 
verdict of " guilty of murder in the first degree." The judge, after 
overruling a motion for a new trial, pronounced a most impressive 
and solemn sentence of death, by hanging, upon the prisoner. The 
court-room was filled to overflowing with both men and women. All 
were much affected, and many tears were shed. The prisoner looked 
pale and agitated, yet it was apparent that he was not without hope. 
The execution was fixed at a distant day by the court, to afford an 
opportunity to test the legality of the conviction in the Supreme 
Court. The judgment was affirmed by the last judicial tribunal and 
the record returned. The people in Dearborn almost in mass signed 
a petition to the Governor for the pardon of Fuller ; and such were 
his hopes that he refused to escape from his prison, when he could have 
done so. Time rolled on, and brought the fatal hour, but no pardon ; 
and Fuller was publicly executed in the presence of thousands. This 
case will long be remembered in old Dearborn. 



TRIAL OF O'BRIAN. 

The mind of the reader and my own recollections, may require rest 
from this deep tragedy, by relating other cases of a more comical 
character. Shortly after the trial of Fuller, the court called the case 
of Michael' O'Brian, indicted for the larceny of a watch, the property 
of Jemmy O'Regan. The prisoner appeared in the box. He was a 
little pock-marked Irishman, who was evidently acquainted with the 
" dear eratur," as well as the private resting-places in the out-houses 
of the city. In the witness-stand sat Jemmy O'Regan, the prosecu- 
ting witness — a small, rather good-looking Irishman with a flaming 
red head, and one eye that looked as if it had been put in with red 
putty; the other eye had long taken leave of his countenance. Gen. 
James Dill was the clerk of arraigns. The General was a distin- 
guished connecting specimen of the last and present generations — 
a perfect gentleman, with a fine ruffled shirt, white vest, buff pants 
and a long queue down his back, with a solemn look and voice that 
would almost arouse the dead. The General, speaking to the prisoner, 
" Michael O'Brian, stand up and hold up your hand." " I will just 
do that very thing as ye ask me." " You are indicted for stealing 
Jemmy O'Regan's watch ; are you guilty or not guilty." Michael 
bowing to the floor, "Not guilty, w_y lord!" This " brought down 



10 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the house," as the saying goes. The case was submitted to the court 
without a jury. Jemmy was sworn and was the only witness. He 
went on to identify the watch ; gave the number and maker's name, 
and then with tears in his eyes, " It is the same watch me ould mother 
gave me when I left Ireland, peace to her sowl." The identity of the 
watch was completely proved, but still the larceny was not traced to 
Michael O'Brian. Judge Eggleston — " Jemmy O'Regan, did you 
find the watch upon Michael?" "Sir, your honor?" Judge — "I 
say, did you find the watch with him." Jemmy, with the most indig- 
nant contempt in his eye, looking the judge in the face, " Find the 
watch upon him ? and didn't I tell yer honor that it was the watch me 
ould mither gave me in Ireland. Had I found him with it, do ye think 
I would have troubled your honor with him ? " Judge — " The prisoner 
must be acquitted, on the ground that there is no evidence that he ever 
saw the watch." Jemmy — " And how could he see it your honor, 
when he was drunk and aslape on the flour all the while he stole it?" 



FIRST FEE. 

I LEFT Dearborn immediately after these trials with my license — 
arrived at Versailles, Ripley county, the next day, and fairly entered 
into professional life. My shingle was exposed to the gaze of the passers- 
by for some days, but no client called. My landlord of course looked 
for his dollar and a quarter at the end of the week, his boarding 
price, and I began to doubt whether the profession of the law was 
what I had supposed, the road to wealth and fame, when a loud knock 
at the door aroused my attention, and in stepped a man of a most 
herculean frame, apparently much excited, and asked if the " squire " 
was within. I said " yes." Says he, " I have a very important case, 
squire, and have come to fee you." This was indeed music to my ear, the 
first of the kind I had ever heard. The case was stated ; a neighbor had, 
without asking, bored one of his sugar trees. " If he had asked it," 
said my client, " he might have bored a dozen of them and welcome." 
Here was a plain case of trespass quare daiisum /regit, as my Black- 
stone told me. The advice was given, the action brought, and warmly 
contested by Merritt S. Craig, my worthy competitor for wealth and 
fame at Versailles. I had left the office of the justice after my first 
speech and was eating dinner at my boarding-house when in rushed 
my client and announced the result in his stentorian voice, " squire, we 
have beat him, verdict 12^ cents, good ; but squire I yirant you to stick 
to him, as he now swears he will plunge it into ekkity f here is your fee 
of 82,50." This was my first client, my first case, and my first fee. 



BEEF CASE. 11 



[Tuesday Morning, July 7, 1857. 

BEEF CASE. 

In the spring of 1820 I left Versailles, and settled in Connersville. 
in the beautiful Whitewater valley. John Conner, the proprietor, 
lived there at that time, and as he had been many years in his youth 
among the Indians, at their homes, Connersville was daily filled with 
his first forest friends. The only hotel was kept by my distinguished 
friend, Newton Claypool ; the only attorney in the place was my friend 
William W. Wick, who was soon after elected judge of the " new pur- 
chase circuit," including the seat of government. Court was in session 
when I arrived. The great case of Isaac Jones against Edward Har- 
per was on trial. The facts of the case were simply these : Jones sold 
Harper twenty-five cents worth of beef in the market ; Harper had no 
change to pay for it. Jones, some days after, called on Harper for 
his pay. Harper refused to pay, alleging that the beef made his 
family sick. Jones brought suit before Edmund Harrison, a justice 
of the peace, laying his damages at $2. 50. Several hung juries fol- 
lowed each other before the justice. At length a verdict for Jones 
for twenty-five cents was had, from which Harper appealed to the 
Circuit Court, where jury after jury, at successive terms had disagreed ; 
and now came on the final trial. The people of the country in mass 
were in the court-house, the jury in the box, and the law3'ers in their 
seats when I entered the room; the young judge, Eggleston, sitting 
between William Helm and Edward Webb, his portly associates. 
General James Noble, John Test, Amos Lane, and James B. Ray, the 
counsel for Jones, occupied one end of the long table before the jury, 
William W. Wick, Daniel J. Caswell, and William C. Drew the other. — 
Jones and Harper sat at the ends of the table, deeply anxious as to 
the result, ready to give any required information to their counsel. 
The evidence was heard ; the case argued some two days with great 
energy by the able counsel ; the court charged the jury with the usual 
ability of Judge Eggleston ; the outsiders seemed to doubt of the ver- 
dict, as they took sides with the lawyers. The jury was out all night, 
and at the opening of the court next morning, returned a verdict for 
the defendant. Jones lost his beef; his only farm and home was 
sold by the sheriff to pay the costs — over $1,100 ; and the last time I 
saw him he was poorly dressed, riding a little pony, carrying a few 
pecks of corn to a neighborhood horse-mill. Harper was broken up 
in paying his lawyer's fees. 



12 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

ROOT DOCTORS. 

One morning I was introduced by my landlord to a small, black- 
eyed man, wearing a plain coat and speaking tlie plain language of 
•• thee and tliou," as Dr. Burr, from New Philadelpbia, Ohio, who was 
about to settle in Connersville, as a root doctor. Some days after, 
there was nailed up to the weather-boarding of the hotel, an enor- 
mous swamp-lily root, almost as large as a man, with head, eyes, nose, 
ears and mouth nicely carved, arms and legs with feet stuck on, and 
just above the sign on a board, marked with chalk, " Joseph S. Burr, 
Root Doctor; No Calomel." The news of the arrival of the root 
doctor spread over the country like wild-fire, and hundreds came 
from all parts of the country to see the doctor and the big root. We 
had in town at the time a first-rate Allopathic physician, by the name 
of Dr. Joseph Moffitt, who looked upon the strange root doctor as a 
quack, intending to gull the people, and spoke of him freely with the 
utmost coutempt,while on the other hand the root doctor openly charged 
Dr. Moffitt with killing his patients with "calomel". The people 
soon began to take sides, some for roots and some for calomel. It 
was a sickly season and a good many of Dr. Moffitt's patients died ; 
each case of death was referred to by the root doctor as evidence that 
the calomel doctor was killing the people and many believed the slan- 
der. Dr. Moffitt was at length almost driven to despair, and called 
upon me to bring an action of slander against Dr. Burr; I objected 
at first, but ultimately yielded at the urgent request of the Doctor. 
The action was brought ; some five of the first attorne}^ of the circuit 
were engaged on each side. The trial lasted more than a week ; the 
lawyers distinguished themselves, the proof pro and con left the case 
in doubt in the minds of the jury and bystanders whether the people 
died " with the fever " or were killed by the " calomel doctors". The 
widow of a man who had recently died was called as a witness by Dr. 
Burr. Dr. Moffitt, who sat by me, whispered in my ear, " I have him 
now ; I can prove by a witness in court, that her husband died before 
I got there." The jury foiled to agree and was discharged; the case 
continued. The root doctor ran away, and the suit was dismissed by 
Dr. Moffitt at his own proper costs. 

The effect of this trial upon the practice of medicine in Fayette 
county, as well as upon the necessary qualifications to practice, was 
prodigious. Dr. Burr granted diplomas to his students upon three 
weeks' study. The country was soon filled with root doctors. One 
of his graduates, by the name of Thomas T. Chinn, a constable three 
weeks before, barely able to write his name, sallied forth with his 
diploma to the then " new purchase " as Dr. Chinn. •' Root Doctor and 



EOOT DOCTOKS. 13 

no Calomel," flung to the public eye upon Ms new-painted sign liung 
upon the limb of a tree. A few weeks after, I met him in the street. 
" Well, Doctor, how goes the practice ? " " Only tolerable ; I lost nine 
fine patients last week, one of them an old lady that I wanted to cure 
very bad, but she died in spite of all I could do. I tried every root I 
could find, but she still grew worse, and there being nobody here to 
detect my practice, like the other regular doctors, I concluded to try 
calamus, and dug up a root about nine inches long and made tea of it. 
She drank it with some difficulty, turned over in the bed and died. 
Still, I don't think it was the calamus that killed her, as all the Cal- 
amus doctors are giving it in heavier doses than I did." Such was 
his ignorance that he knew no difi"erence between calomel and calamus, 
and yet he got patients. 



SANG HOE. 

There grew out of this root-doctoring matter another warmly con- 
tested and exciting trial, after this wise ; Dr. Moffitt for the purpose 
of ridiculing Dr. Burr, spoke to one Martillow Remington, a black- 
smith, to make a " sang hoe " for Dr. Burr to dig roots with — directing 
him to finish it nicely and present it to Dr. Burr. The blacksmith 
knew that it was intended as a capital joke. The hoe was finished as 
bright as a piece of Sheffield cutlery, and presented to Dr. Burr, as an 
insult from Dr. Moffitt. Dr. Burr contrary to the expectations of Dr. 
Moffitt, not only received the hoe, but returned to Dr. Moffitt his 
warmest thanks for the present. Remington then called upon Dr. 
Moffitt for his pay for making the hoe. The Dr. refused to pay, on 
the ground that it was all a joke ; but Remington set up his labor on 
the hoe as a consideration on his part, and hurled the joke part of the 
transaction back upon Dr. Moffitt. An action soon followed by Rem- 
ington against Dr. Moffitt, before a justice of the peace. The trial 
was warmly contested, many witnesses testified, all stating the making 
of the hoe by the plaintiff, but each giving it as his opinion that it 
was all a joke. Next morning the opinion of the justice was to be 
given. The office was crowded at an early hour. The time for the 
decision to be delivered arrived, when the constable ordered " Silence 
in the court-house." Squire Hazelrigg — " This is a very important 
case, upon which I have thought much, and after mature deliberation, 
my opinion is, that it was all a joke. I have looked through the statute, 
Espinasse's Nisi Prius and Peak's Evidence, but can not find that an 
action will lie for a ' joke ; ' judgment for the defendant of course." I 
was congratulated by my client for my able defense — but the end 



14 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

was not yet. The obstinate counsel for the blacksmith refused to sub- 
mit to the opinion of the court, and took an appeal to the circuit court. 
Costs accumulated, continuances were had for the absence of witnesses ; 
a number of lawyers were employed on both sides. The case was 
argued at great length by able counsel, and was ultimately submitted to 
the court. Judge Eggleston decided, that so far as the blacksmith 
was concerned it was no joke, and gave judgment for the plaintiff for 
$7 damages and over 6300 costs. Dr. Moffitt very good-naturedly 
remarked, upon seeing the amount of the cost bill, " Judge Eggleston 
was right ; this is no joke." 



DR. beadburn's trial. 15 

[Thursday Mornixg, July 9, 1857. 

DR. BRADBURN'S TRIAL. 

Among the first of the great tragic trials in this State, was that of 
Dr. John Bradburn, of Fayette county, on an indictment for murder. 
I was at the time County Prosecutor for the State. The ftiets of the 
case were briefly these : Dr. Bradburn was an eminent surgeon, a 
man of great muscular power and of the most indomitable personal 
courage. I have scarcely ever seen a more athletic man, and I never 
knew a man of greater bravery. He lived some four or five miles 
from Connersville. In general the Doctor was highly respected, 
but it seems that he had given some real or imaginary cause of offense 
to several young men of equal respectability in his neighborhood, who 
took it into their heads that they would take the Doctor from his 
house in the night, ride him on a rail to the water and then duck him. 
The Doctor by some means got wind of what was going on, and 
prepared himself with weapons for defense, among which was a long- 
dissecting knife with two edges. The young men, unaware of his 
preparation, fixed upon a dark night to carry their plan into execution. 
Capt. Robert L. Broaddus was selected as their leader. About twelve 
o'clock at night the party silently approached the dwelling of the 
Doctor and tried to open the door, but found it fast. The Doctor 
was in bed in an adjoining room, wide awake, with his large knife 
under his pillow, cool and prepared. The outside party placed an iron 
crow-bar, which they had brought with them, under the door, threw it 
off its hinges and entered the room, carrying with them the ropes 
prepared to tie the Doctor before they took him from the house. In 
the meantime the Doctor remained silently sitting upon his bed, with 
his knife in his hands. The room was dark. The party advanced, 
feeling their way, until the foremost, young Alexander, about eighteen 
years of age, reached the bed, when he received a fatal stab with the 
knife, turned, rushed to the door, stepped out, and fell dead in the 
yard. Not a word was spoken. The next, young Caldwell, about 
twenty years of age, advanced, evidently not knowing the fate of 
Alexander, until he came within the grasp of the Doctor, when the 
fatal knife was thrust through his side, penetrating his heart. He 
uttered a loud groan, turned, fled to the door, passed a short distance 
into the yard, fell and died near the body of Alexander. The groan 
of Caldwell alarmed the others, who immediately retreated for the door, 
pursued by the Doctor, and one other of the party received a severe, 
but not a mortal wound. Capt. Broaddus told me that at one time the 
Doctor was between him and the door, and as he passed to go out the 



16 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

Doctor struck at him witli his knife, and just grazed his side. It was 
very evident that but for the groan of Caldwell, not one of the assailants 
would have left the house alive. Such was the awful tragedy at the 
house. The young men killed were of the very first families of the 
"county ; indeed of the State. The excitement was intense ; the Doctor 
gave himself up, and was put in jail. While the inquest was sitting 
over the dead bodies, he was calm and composed, and stated all about 
the transaction, and I have no doubt truthfully, for he was a man of 
truth, although his life was at stake. He had been my client, and on 
this, the most trying occasion of his life, he insisted that I should 
defend him. I told him I was the attorney of the State. " You get 
but 8120 a year, and I will give you 8500 for this case alone." I 
however, at once told him that no fee could induce me to forsake the 
State at such a juncture, and declined further conversation with him. 
He sent to Brookville for John T. McKinney to defend him. The 
court met ; the grand-jury found a bill for murder ; the trial came on ; 
the facts substantially as stated were proved, with the admission of the 
Doctor. The court-house was crowded with an excited population. 
General McKinney made a strong speech in the defense, but it evidently 
fell upon unwilling ears. My closing speech was again and again 
applauded by the crowd, and the applause as often reprimanded by the 
Court and the sherifi". It was evident that the jury, and the audience 
were with me, and had the case gone to the jury without any charge 
from the Court, Doctor Bradburn would have been illegally convicted, 
I have no doubt. But Judge Eggleston, as we say, had the " closing " 
or last speech, and nobly did he sustain his high character as a judge 
on that occasion. He took up the case calmly but firmly ; examined 
its principles, and laid down the law of self-defense, or excusable 
homicide, that governed the prosecution, step by step, until, I am 
satisfied, there was neither lawyer, juror, nor bystander in the court 
room that did not acquit the prisoner before the jury left the box. 
The jury retired but a few minutes and returned a verdict of not 
guilty, on the ground of self-defense. So ended this long-to-be- 
remembered case in old Fayette. 



TRIAL OF YOUNG. 

In the year 1824 I was appointed by Governor Hendricks Circuit 
Prosecutor for the Third Judicial Circuit, and for the succeeding two 
years I rode with Judge Eggleston into every county and attended 
the courts twice a year. Our Southern Court at that time was held at 
Vevay, and our Northern at Fort "Wayne. The judge was rather 



DK. beadburn's trial. 17 

delicate, but I had an iron constitution. There were no bridges over 
the streams, but we rode good swimming horses, and never faltered 
on account of high water, but plunged in and always found the 
opposite shore somehow. During the two years that I served as prose- 
cutor, there was not a single court held or a grand-jury impanneled 
in my absence on our circuit. On one circuit I heard nine men 
sentenced to the penitentiary and four to be hung that I prosecuted. 
In the continuation of these reminiscences I propose to sketch some 
of these cases. Before doing which, however, let me present the 
great and exciting trial of Alexander Young for killing John Points, 
in the Rush Circuit Court. The case was prosecuted by James Whit- 
comb and myself, for the State, and defended by Charles H. Test, 
James Rariden and James T. Brown for the prisoner. The fticts of 
the case were these : Young was a justice of the peace of Rush 
county, who had a beautiful and beloved daughter, about seventeen 
years of age. Points was a fine-looking young farmer, the son of a 
respectable man in the neighborhood, but somewhat wild and reckless. 
He had for some time been attached to the Squire's daughter and had 
asked the consent of the father to their marriage ; but was rejected 
and denied the privilege of longer visiting the house. The young 
couple then arranged for an elopement, to get married at a neighboring 
village ; the father got wind of their intentions and determined at all 
hazards to prevent it. He loaded his rifle and hung it up at a con- 
venient place, to be taken down at a moment's notice of the approach 
of young Points. The Squire was absent one morning from his house, 
when Points rode up on horseback ; the daughter was ready, stepped 
to the block and sprang vip behind him, and off they bounded on a 
circuitous path round the fields to the public road leading to the village 
where they were to be married, and their earthly joys to commence 
for life. They left the house full of life, with bright hopes of the 
future, and the ultimate reconciliation of the parents, as they had 
both been readers of romance, and imagined this was to be a noted 
adventure, like escaping from a castle by young lovers: But alas for 
their dreams ! the Squire returned a few moments after they had left, 
and seizing his rifle ran across the fields to the road, and took his 
position near the roadside — behind some tree, where the young couple 
had to pass. They soon approached at a rapid pace, wholly unconscious 
of impending harm. As they were directly opposite the tree, where 
the Squire was concealed, he raised the rifle, the crack was heard 
at the house by the mother. The ball grazed the head of the daugh- 
ter, and young Points fell from his seat a corpse, leaving the intended 
bride in her seat on the horse. She returned to the house with 
2 



18 f.'ARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

her father, and was the principal witness against him on the trial. 

The case created great excitement throughout the whole country. 
The coroner's inquest charged Young with the murder of Points. The 
Squire was arrested and confined in the jail of Rush county. The 
grand-jury found a bill of indictment for murder in the first degree. 
The clergy visited him in his cell repeatedly. He expressed the most 
poignant regret, and the deepest sorrow, so as to make a profound and 
lasting impression upon all who visited him — among the rest, upon 
my venerable friend, the Reverend James Havens, who took a deep 
interest in the trial. The court-house was crowded, and surrounded 
at every window, during the trial, with the most anxious countenances 
I ever saw on any occasion ; and while the daughter testified, the 
crowd seemed almost to cease breathing, such was the silence that 
surrounded us. The daughter related the whole facts and circum- 
stances of the case briefly and calmly, but evidently with great feeling, 
and so far as we could judge, without atiy disposition to withhold any 
thing material because her father was on trial. However, the tragedy 
proved too much for her strength. She gradually sank into a state 
of partial alienation of mind, from which she was never relieved by 
all the treatment of the most eminent physicians, and she is now 
alive — a confined maniac. 

The case was argued with all the ability the eminent counsel on 
both sides could bring to bear upon it. Mr. Whitcomb for the State, 
and Mr. Charles H. Test for the prisoner, especially distinguished 
themselves. The appeals to the sympathy of the jury were not in 
vain. A verdict of manslaughter, two years in the state-prison, and 
a pardon from the Governor, were the final result, but I learned that 
Alexander Young never smiled afterward. 



SLANDER CASE. 19 

[Friday Morning, July 10, 1857. 

SLANDER CASE. 

As I was on my return liome from Indianapolis, accompanied by my 
friend, the late George H. Dunn, we stopped at a little slianty tavern 
in the woods between Big Blue River and Bushville, to stay for the 
night. The landlord I call Perry Laden. We had a good open log- 
fire, a tolerable supper, and took our seats. We were evidently 
strangers at the inn. The landlord, who was a small, frisky, run- 
about fellow, eyed us for some time, and at last drew up his " splint- 
bottomed chair" and commenced: "Are either of you lawyers?" 
" Yes, both of us." " Then you are the very men I want to see — I 
have a lawsuit for you." "What about?" " The man that keeps the 
tavern in sight down the road (whom I call Elzy C. Lee), has slandered 
me the worst kind." " Indeed, what did he say of you ? " " He said 
that I fed my travelers on stolen pork." " Perhaps he was only in 
fun." " Not he, it was all done to get the traveling custom to his 
tavern." This looked plausible, and as I practiced in the Rush Circuit 
Court, the matter began to assume a serious, business-like character, 
as I thought myself somebody in slander cases, although " Starkie on 
Slander," in two volumes, had not then met the eye of the profession. 
We generally carried with us, on the circuit, " Espinasse's Nisi Prius.'' 
and " Peak's Evidence," with dog-ears turned down at each heading. 
Judge Dunn was my senior in practice, and had some experience in 
the difficulties that sometimes embarrass counsel upon the trial, when, 
for the first time they learn that their clients only told the truth as 
far as they went, but forgot to tell the whole truth, which alone would 
enable them to meet the true state of the case before the court. 
" One question more Mr. Laden," said Judge Dunn, " did you ever 
kill anybody's hogs by accident and bring them home, out of which 
your neighbor might have made up this story against you ? " ■^' Never ! 
I never killed a hog in the woods in my life ; besides I can prove my 
character from a boy, by Captain Bracken." This settled the matter 
in favor of the action. Judge Dunn, living at Lawrenceburg, and 
not practicing in Rushville, the case was given up to me ; the fee 
agreed upon, twenty dollars certain, and one half the damages contin- 
gent. The case was brought at the next term of the court, and Capt. 
Bracken subpenaed to prove the good character from infancy of my 
client. My expectations were high of the large damages that I was 
to divide with my client ; I had read of $20,000, S10,000, $5,000, and 
such verdicts in aggravated eases of slander. The court came on, 
my case was called. " A rule for a plea," says I. " Plead instanter," 



20 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

says James Rariden for defendant. " Hand the plea to me, Mr. 
Clerk," says I. The clerk handed over the plea. A single glance 
satisfied me that there was trouble ahead. The plea was a "justifica- 
tion " of the words, and charging the stealing of two hogs on my 
client, the property of some one unknown. I told my client the sub- 
stance of the plea. " It is all a lie, they can't prove it, and if they do 
Capt. Bracken will clear up my character." Of course I took issue upon 
the plea. A jury was called, and Mr. Rariden and Chas. H. Test called 
to the witness-stand a girl that had lived with my client at one time, but 
had been discharged some time before the trial. She swore positively 
that my client had killed two hogs in the woods, skinned them, cut 
ofi" their heads and brought them home before daylight on a sled ; and 
said that he could kill enough for his winter's meat for the whole 
family. " How is this," I whispered in his ear. " Ask her what I 
said when I came home." I put the question. " He said as he had 
cut oif the heads and legs of the hogs, and had skinned them, nobody 
could tell whether they were deer or hogs." My client seemed pleased 
with the answer to his question. " Now call up Capt. Bracken, 
and he will give my character." " Capt. Bracken, stand up and be 
sworn. Are you acquainted with the plaintiff", and how long have 
you known him ? " "I have known him from a boy." " What is his 
character?" Well, he always dealt fair enough with mc." " But for 
honesty ; you never heard any thing against him for honesty ? " 
" Well, I can't exactly say that ; he stole a fine hog from me that I 
had killed and hung up in the smoke-house ; I tracked him the next 
morning, and found the hog at his house, and he j^aid me for it." 
Bariden laughed aloud, and my head fell at least forty degrees. The 
case was closed before the jury. The proof was positive. I sprang 
to my feet, and addressing the Court, " I ask the Court to instruct 
the jury, that before they can find for the defendant the evidence 
must be so strong that if the plaintiff was on his trial for stealing the 
hogs, they would send him to the penitentiary?" "I admit that to 
be the law ; let the jury take the case," said Mr. Rariden. The jury 
retired to their room, and the Court adjourned. I walked silently 
to the tavern, amid the jeers of the lawyers, and the exultation of 
my competitor for the verdict. The jury were out all night, and 
just as the Court met in the morning, returned with a verdict of 
" one cent damages for the plaintiff"." The defendant rushed up to 
me and tendered the cent. Mr. Rariden most indignantly stepped up 
to the foreman, " How could you find such a verdict? " " Upon your 
own admissions." "What did I admit?" "Mr. Smith said if we 
found for the defendant, we must send the plaintiff to the peniten- 



TKIAL OF MONROE. 21 

tiary, and you admitted that to be the law ; so we could not think of 
sending a man well-off, and with a good tavern-stand, to the peniten- 
tiary, for stealing two little hogs, and poor at that." Judgment was 
rendered for one cent in damages, and over $300 costs. All my 
imaginary income from the verdict vanished, and the next time I 
heard from the parties, the tavern of the defendant was advertised 
by the sheriff to pay the costs. This case has occupied more space 
than I would have liked, but it contains a professional moral worth 
remembering. 



TRIAL OF MONROE. 

Soon after the above case, came on, in the same court, the trial of 
Hugh Monroe for murder. The case was prosecuted by James Whit- 
comb, for the State, and defended by Charles H. Test, James Rariden, 
James T. Brown, and myself. Hugh Monroe was a native of North 
Carolina, but had resided some time in Rush county. He and the 
deceased had been for several months on bad terms, when they met 
at a shooting-match. While the deceased was fixing the target on 
the board, Monroe fired, and the ball passed through him, and he fell 
and died without a struggle. Soon after the occurrence I was sitting 
in my ofiiee, at Connersville, one morning, when a venerable man, 
uncommonly fine-looking, with hair as white as snow, finely but 
plainly dressed, entered and took a seat. He informed me that he 
was from North Carolina, and was the father of Hugh Monroe, then 
confined in the jail at Rushville. " I have come to see you, and see 
whether you think you can do any thing for him." " I can try." 
" Oh, if I could have brought with me William Gaston, of our State, 
I would have been satisfied. I offered him a deed to my farm to come 
with me and defend my son, but he could not leave home. I must 
take you, and hope for the best." I was the only counsel feed by the 
father. My colleagues were employed by the son. Hugh Monroe 
was indicted for murder. A strong case was made by the testimony 
against him. It was at least a ridge case that would have justified a 
verdict of guilty of murder. The venerable father sat by the side of 
his son with his eyes suffused with tears. The argument lasted two 
whole days. The counsel for the prisoner were well trained in 
the field of advocacy, and I never, to this day heard a case more strongly 
defended. The charge of the Court, though just, was against us, 
and as the jury retired the old father rose from his seat and advan- 
ced to where I was standing, took me by the hand, the tears rolling 
down his furrowed cheeks, " Oh, Mr. Smith, if they hang my son I 



22 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

shall cro home and tell his old mother that Mr. Gaston could have 
done no more for him than you have done." His utterance was 
choked, and with the squeeze of the hand we parted. The jury 
returned a verdict of manslaughter, sixteen years in the penitentiary, 
so strong was the evidence against him. As the verdict was pronoun- 
ced, the father said, " Thank God, his life is spared ! " and the tears 
gushed from his eyes as he approached and threw his trembling arms 
around the neck of the prisoner. Hugh Monroe was pardoned by the 
Governor and returned to North Carolina to his aged parents, where 
he was received like the returning prodigal. 



TRIAL OF A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER, ETC. 23 



[Saturday Morning, July 11, 1857. 

TRIAL OF A REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER. 

Samuel Fields, a Revolutionary soldier, was indicted in the 
Franklin Circuit Court for murder, for killing Robert Murphy. I 
prosecuted the case, William E.. Morris and John T. M'Kinney 
appeared for the prisoner. The facts were briefly as follows : The 
deceased, a constable, in the attempt to serve a writ of ca sa on the 
body of Fields, received a mortal wound with a shoe-knife which 
Fields had in his hand, of which wound Murphy languished for some 
days and died. Fields was arrested and confined in jail at Brookville. 
Court met, and the grand-jury found a bill of indictment for murder 
against Fields. There was much excitement at the trial ; officer Murphy 
had many warm friends, and the services of the Revolutionary prisoner 
plead strongly with the people. The jury that tried the case was one 
of the most select that I have ever seen in one box. The evidence 
was clear and conclusive, leaving no room to doubt. The defense 
set up was that the crime was committed under a frenzied state of 
excitement, to which it was answered by the prosecuting attorney and 
charged by Judge Eggleston, who presided, that the knowingly killing 
of an officer, in the discharge of his duty, armed with legal process, 
and the fact made known to the execution defendant, is murder in 
the eye of the law. The jury rendered a verdict of guilty, and the 
court sentenced the prisoner to be hung ; the day of the execution 
was fixed by the court. In the meantime a number of distinguished 
citizens of the county sallied forth in every direction with petitions 
for his pardon. Thousands signed them in consideration of his 
Revolutionary services. The day of the execution arrived ; the county 
in mass surrounded the gallows ; the last moment had come, when 
Grov. James B. Ray stepped upon the scaffold, commanded silence and 
handed the prisoner a pardon. Great was the sensation ; Fields 
was taken from the platform and conveyed to his home, to live a few 
years longer to repent of his deeds ; and the audience retired with 
evident disappointment in their countenances at not seeinga man hung. 



A GOOSE CASE. 

Soon after the above trial I was distinguished by being employed in 
one of the most interesting, if not important cases that ever occurred in 
the county. It was an action for slanderous words spoken, charging 
the plaintiff's wife with stealing the goose of the defendant's wife. The 
parties were highly respectable. The neighborhood was about equally 



24 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

divided, and separated into classes, holding no intercourse with each 
other. The declaration charged that in consequence of the slander the 
neighbors had refused to have any intercourse whatever with the wife of 
the plaintiff. Damages ^5,000. The case was called. Col. Wallace, 
Gen. Noble, and Gen. McKinney for the plaintiff; William R. Morris 
and myself for the defendant. Pleas " not guilty," and " justification." 
Witnesses on separate sides of the court-house, a few to prove the 
words ; some as to the good character of the parties, which nobody 
disputed ; but the most of the witnesses were females, to prove the 
identity of the goose in question, as that seemed to be the great point 
of the case. The law was clear. The speaking of the words was not 
denied before the jury; but who was the owner of the goose? It 
soon became evident that the case must turn upon that question, and 
the utmost tact and ingenuity were displayed by the attorneys, 
with many side-bar remarks, as the trial progressed. The plaintiff 
proved by a host of witnesses that he' was the owner of the goose — 
in fact that she was hatched his. We proved that the goose was 
ours — that we owned her mother and her grand-mother, that they 
were all white, and had a peculiar propensity to take to the water as 
soon as they were out of the shell. The case seemed to be about 
balanced. Court adjourned for dinner with the remark of the plaintiff's 
counsel that they had but one witness to examine in rebutting. Court 
met — the plaintiff called his witness, a very respectable looking 
lady of some seventy years. She took the stand, all eyes were upon 
her, for she seemed like the President of the Senate about to give the 
casting vote upon a tie of that body. Plaintiff's counsel : " Madam, 
how long have you been acquainted with geese, and do you know 
who owns the goose in question?" It was a bold question and was 
conclusive to our minds that the counsel knew before they put the 
question what the answer would be. We felt that all depended upon 
the answer. The witness raised her " specks " and rubbed the glasses 
with her hands, and a strong firm voice answered : " I have been 
more than sixty years acquainted with geese, and I know that this 
goose belongs to the wife of the plaintiff." This was direct and 
positive, and the counsel for plaintiff rested. " Take the witness," 
says Col. Wallace, the leading counsel, triumphantly. Now came the 
trying question on our part. Should we ask a single cross question. 
I thought not, but was overruled by my associates, and the fatal 
question was put, " How do you know that that particular goose belongs 
to the wife of the plaintiff?" " Because she was a white goose and 
paced. I owned her great-grand mother, and she paced, and so did all 
that breed." This was conclusive ; no more questions were asked. 



KEEPING ORDER IN COURT, ETC. 25 

The case was argued at great length and with unusual ability, 
especially on the side of the defendant, but we were unable to get 
over the evidence that this was a " pacing " goose. Verdict, one dollar 
damages. The most remarkable fact in the case was that it did not 
occur to one of the counsel for the defendant that there never was a 
trotting goose, until it was too late, and our opponents had triumphed. 



KEEPING ORDER IN COURT. 

Before I left Versailles there was one other case in which I was 
employed, but got no fee. We elected a big two-fisted Kentuckian 
a justice of the peace. He had been a great fighter in his young 
days. I call him John Lindsay. Soon after he was elected, there 
was brought before him a man I call Jim Boice on a charge of assault 
and battery. Jim soon became boisterous, and began to abuse the 
justice. Squire Lindsay directed him to be quiet; but Jim grew 
worse and worse until the Squire could stand it no longer. " Jim," says 
the Squire, " I know little about the power the law gives me to keep 
order in court, but I know very well the power the Almighty has 
given me, and so shall you." At the moment the Squire sprang 
upon Jim, knocked him down and kicked him out of the oflStco. Jim 
got up, and went to Squire Hodges, his brother-in-law, made an 
affidavit of the assault and battery, and had Squire Lindsay arrested. 
I went with him to the justice, and moved to dismiss the case, on 
the ground that the justice was a brother-in-law to the prosecutor. 
My motion was sustained, and the justice entered a judgment of 
acquittal. Boice then went before Squire Leopard and filed another 
affidavit. Lindsay was again arrested and taken before Leopard. I 
again appeared for Lindsay, and moved for his acquittal upon the 
ground that he could not be put in jeopardy twice for the same ofiense 
under our Constitution. The justice sustained the motion and the 
Squire was finally acquitted, and from that time forward there was 
as good order in the office of Squire Lindsay as in the Supreme 
Court-room at Washington, where the marshal opens the court with 
" yea, yea," and closes with " God save the United States, and 
this honorable court." 



TEETH IN TESTIMONY. 

In an interesting trial at Rushville, in which I was engaged as 
counsel, my principal witness to sustain the case was a woman by 
the name of Elizabeth Blackstone. She had sworn positively to the 



26 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

facts of the case. Messrs. Test and Rariden, the counsel on the 
opposite side, saw that the case was with me unless they could impeach 
her testtmony. She was a stranger, and none knew her character, 
good or bad. She had testified, however, that she was in the State 
of Ohio at a particular time. This was taken down by the counsel, 
and upon that point they expected to contradict and discredit her. 
After she left the stand, they called a witness that resided in Illinois 
to prove that at the time she stated she was in Ohio she was in fact 
at a dance in Illinois, where the witness was. Elizabeth wore a 
beautiful set of artificial teeth — a mouth full. She sat some distance 
back from the witness-stand. The witness from Illinois swore posi- 
tively to her person, and that she was at the dance in Illinois at the 
time, directly contradicting her. The counsel gave over the witness 
to me. Elizabeth whispered in my ear : " Let me ask him a ques- 
tion." " Certainly." She turned her head from the witness, slipped 
out her false teeth and wrapped them in her handkerchief, stepped 
quickly up to the witness, looked him full in the face, opened her 
mouth wide exhibiting a few rotten snags : " Did you ever see me 
before?" " TVb, I can swear I never did. You looked some like the 
lady I saw, but I see you are not the same woman. She had beauti- 
ful natural teeth." The triumph of " art " in Elizabeth was com- 
plete. I afterward learned that she was at the ball, and the first 
impression of the Illinois witness was correct. 



A SMALL VICTORY DEARLY PURCHASED. 27 



[Monday Morning, July 13, 1857. 

A SMALL VICTORY DEARLY PURCHASED. 

Soon after I commenced my circuit duties, in 1824, I arrived at 
Lawrenceburgh, and stopped at the hotel of John Gray. The Circuit 
Court was to be held next day. After supper a well dressed, good- 
looking man called upon me to give me a little appeal case against 
John Ackerman, a farmer living in the northern part of the county. 
He told his story ; the case was in a nut-shell ; Ackerman had bought 
groceries of him in Cincinnati to the amount of eight dollars, and 
given his note for the amount ; had frequently promised to pay the 
note, but having as often failed, the suit had been brought before a 
justice of the peace against Ackerman to recover the eight dollars and 
a few cents costs. — Ackerman appeared, by his lawyer, and filed a plea 
of " non assumpsit" upon oath, and there being no evidence to sustain 
the case, judgment was entered for the defendant, of course. 

Some three months afterward the plaintiff heard of it and appealed 
the case, and had with him all the witnesses to prove it in court. The 
next day the case was called, and Messrs. Lane and St. Clair moved to 
dismiss the appeal, because it was not filed in time. Our statute then 
required appeals to be filed within thirty days of the date of the judg- 
ment to give jurisdiction to the circuit court. Judge Eggleston 
remarked that he had no discretion, the appeal must be dismissed, but 
considering the small amount involved, and the nature of the defense, 
he would suggest that it would be better to let a judgment go. I then 
proposed to defendant's counsel that if they would let me take judg- 
ment for the eight dollars and costs, the case should there end. 
After a moment's consultation with their client my proposition was 
rejected, and the appeal was dismissed by the court, at the costs of my 
client, and Ackerman left the court-room laughing over his triumph. 
But the end was not yet. The grand-jury was in session. I prepared 
an indictment for perjury against Ackerman for his oath in swearing 
to the plea before the justice. The evidence was clear and conclusive. 
The bill was found and returned before dinner. I quietly took out a 
bench-warrant and before Ackerman had left town he was arrested by 
John Spencer, the sherifi", and brought into court. His counsel, Messrs. 
Lane and St. Clair, immediately ofi'ered bail for his appearance from 
day to day — during the term the recognizance was entered, and the 
counsel remarked; "Ready for trial." "So is the State; let a jury 
come." — The sherifi" put a jury in the box. Walter Armstrong was 
foreman. Court adjourned till morning. The trial came on early. 
The evidence was heard. I opened the case briefly ; Mr. Lane followed 



28 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

with a powerful speech, but the evidence head "prejudiced" the 
jury against his client, and I had nothing to do but to sum up and 
read the statute punishing the offense. The court charged — the jury 
returned a verdict of guilty — two years in the penitentiary. Ackerman 
was called to hear judgment, but failed to answer. The recognizance 
forfeited, a capias ordered returnable to the next term. In vacation 
Ackerman was arrested, a motion in arrest overruled by the court, 
and Ackerman sentenced to the penitentiary at hard labor for two 
years. His farm was sold upon the forfeited recognizance, and his 
personal effects to pay his lawyers. I sketch this case for its moral. 



A SHERIFF OUTWITTED. 

In early times, before the first land-sales of the beautiful White- 
water valley, where Connersville, Liberty, Cambridge City, Centerville 
and llichmond now stand, there lived upon the east bank of White- 
water, a mile above Connersville, a most remarkable woman by the 
name of Betty 'Frazier. She was a small, tough-looking, rather swarthy 
woman ; her husband, George Frazier, was a poor cripple, and with 
their children was entirely supported by Betty. They had settled 
upon a small fraction of government land, intending to purchase at 
the sales. The land-office was at Cincinnati, and General James Find- 
lay was the Receiver. The spring of the year, after a severe winter, 
had come ; the sales were to take place the next winter, and Betty had 
the season before her to raise the money to pay for her land. She 
commenced with a young stock of hogs, caring for them daily, driving 
them to the best mast, and preparing a good patch of corn for the fat- 
tening process. She had one horse only to tend her crop, and to ride to 
Cincinnati when she drove her hogs down to sell, and buy her land. 

One day about mid-summer she saw a horseman ride up to her 
cabin in full uniform. She met him at the bars : " Well, General 
Hanna, how do you do?" "Very well, Mrs. Frazier." "What on 
earth has brought you all the way from Brookville to my poor cabin ?" 
"I am very sorry to tell you, Mrs. Frazier, that I am the sheriff, and 
have an execution against your property." "Well, General, I always 
submit to the law ; come with me to the stable and I will give you my 
only horse as the best I can do." There were no " exemption laws" 
then. Betty and the General proceeded to the stable. It was a strong 
log building with a single door, no window, overlaid with a solid plat- 
form of logs, and filled above with hay for the horse. The door fas- 
tened outside with a large wooden pin in a log. " There, General, is 
the horse — take him." The General stepped in and commenced 



A BREACH OF PROMISE CASE. 29 

untying tlie horse. Betty immediately fostened tlie door outside, 
driving the pin into the hole to its full length, and left the General 
to his reflections while she attended to her household aflairs. Time 
passed away; night came on; but no relief to the captured General. 
Morning came, and with it came Betty. " Well, General, how did you 
sleep last night." " Not very well. I am ready to compromise this 
matter; if you will let me out and show me the ford over Whitewater 
(the river was muddy and high), 1 will leave you and the horse and 
return the execution 'no property found.' " " Upon honor? " " Yes, 
upon honor." Betty opened the door. The General mounted his 
horse and silently followed Betty down to the river side. '• There, 
General, you will go in just above the big sycamore, and come out at 
that haw-bush you see." The General started ; at the second step both 
horse and rider were under water out of sight, and the chapeau of the 
General was seen floating down the river. Still, he being one of the 
pioneers, and his horse a trained swimmer, gallantly stemmed the cur- 
rent, and exactly struck the haw-bush, his horse swimming to the very 
shore, while Betty stood on the bank screaming — " I guess the Brook- 
ville oflEicers will let me alone now till I have sold my pigs and bought 
my land." The General rode on dripping wet to his brigade that mus- 
tered that day. But the end was not yet. Time rolled on ; the pigs 
grew to be well fatted hogs. Betty mounted her pony ; the little 
boys started the hogs for Cincinnati ; they had ten days to get there 
before the land-sales ; the distance was about seventy miles. Nothing 
unusual occurred on the road until they arrived at New Trenton, at 
Squire Rockafellow's. The night was stormy ; the snow fell deep ; 
next morning found Betty at the usual hour on the pony, well wrap- 
ped, with an infant a few Iwiirs old in her bosom. She arrived with 
her hogs at Cincinnati the day before the sale, sold them for cash, and 
the late General Findlay told me that she stood by his side on the box 
and bid off her land, with her infant in her arms. Surely " truth is 
stranger than fiction." 

A BREACH OF PROMISE CASE. 

Soon after the county of Union was organized, I was employed by 
a little, hump-baeked fellow, some twenty-five years of age, certainly 
one of the most perfect libels on creation that I had seen, to defend 
him against an action for breach of marriage contract. I confess I 
felt some curiosity to see the woman that would consent to marry him, 
much less sue him for refusing to say " yes " to the question of the 
Sqxiire. Court arrived ; the usual declaration, laying special damages 
for divers, to wit, one hundred suppers, and calico dresses too numer- 



30 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

ous to mention, all preparatory for the wedding, was filed. It was a 
pure breaeh-of-promise case, without the common aggravation. Plea 
" non assumpsit;" James Perry and James Rariden for plaintiff, and 
myself alone for the defendant. My client whispered " there she 
comes." I turned my eyes and sure enough there she was, a most 
beautiful girl, large, rather fleshy, raven hair, dark eyes, rosy cheeks, 
a mouth filled with beautiful white teeth. She walked gracefully 
forward and took a seat by the side of her counsel. A jury was 
impanelled ; Judge Perry opened, with an eloquent address to the 
jury, and closed by asking the full amount of §5,000 claimed in the 
declaration. The witnesses clearly proved the marriage contract, 
which in fiict my client did not deny ; one white muslin and two red 
calico dresses were positively proved, worth eight dollars, and there 
was some evidence, but not satisfactory, of a gingham dress with 
broad stripes. About the supper there was no question ; it was 
proved beyond controversy, or the powers of argument, or in the 
language of Gen. Gushing it was a " fixed fact." Great preparations 
had been made ; one turkey and six chickens had been roasted whole, 
large dishes of beans and potatoes, with a boiled ham, turnips and 
boiled cabbage in profusion. The old lady dwelt with evident delight 
upon the big custard pie that she had made " with her own hands, " 
such as no other woman in the neighborhood could make, " though 
she said it herself " All this looked bad for my client and my case. 
" We rest here. " " No evidence to offer, " said I ; all I had was before 
the jury, in what the lawyers called "profert in curia. " The case 
was opened by Judge Perry, with a most brilliant speech of some two 
hours. I followed and made only two points in the case; first, that 
the plaintiff had sustained no damages in consequence of my client 
breaking his engagement, as she could marry a much better looking 
man any day ; and second, that the dresses would be needed in cour- 
ting other sweethearts, and the supper was eaten by the intended bride 
and her friends, and my client got none of it. Mr. Rariden in the 
close assailed with all his powers my positions, but seemed to press 
upon the jury the dresses and the extra " fixens " for the supper. The 
Court charged the jury with usual ability ; but the moment the judge 
touched the extra dresses and the supper, I saw that it was all over 
with my case. Foreman. — " "We find a verdict for the plaintiff, eight 
dollars for the dresses, and three dollars and a half for the supper, total 
eleven dollars and fifty cents. " The Court.—" Judgment on the ver- 
dict. " " Gentlemen of the jury, you are discharged till morning, with 
the thanks of the Court for your just verdict in this important case. " 



A lawyer's maneuver. 31 

[Tuesday Morning, July 14, 1857. 
A LAWYER'S MANEUVER. 

At the first term I attended at Vevay, I was employed by Jolin H. 
O'Neal to defend him in an action of assault and battery by Thomas 
Mount. My client was a stout young man, and Mount an old man of 
quite inferior strength, — I was satisfied from the statement of my 
client that it was an aggravated case. The counsel for the plaintiff, 
John Dumont, Steven C. Stevens and Amos Lane, my client told me, 
were to have half the damages as their fee. I knew, and had reason 
to fear their powers in such a case, with the stimulus of a " contingent," 
especially if they had the close of the argument before the jury. The 
case was called, and I filed the plea of " son assault " alone, to which 
they replied " de injuria" giving me the opening and closing of the 
argument. The cause was continued and at the next term referred to 
arbitration, and the term following an award was returned against my 
client for 81,000 damages; but the arbitrators had neglected to be 
sworn. The award was set aside on my motion at the next term, and 
the cause immediately called for trial. "Ready," said the plaintiff's 
counsel. " Ready," said I. A jury was immediately impannelled. I 
commenced the case without a word to the jury as to my expected 
proof. " Sheriff, call William O'Neal." The witness was sworn and 
took the stand. " William, will you state to the Court and jury what 
you know of an assault and battery committed by Thomas Mount on 
your brother John H. O'Neal, in Dearborn county, about three years 
ago ? " " Stop ! not a word ! " said Mr. Lane, rising and addressing the 
Court. " We object to any evidence of any other assault and battery 
than the one laid in the declaration, in Switzerland county, and espe- 
cially of any one that took place more than two years before this suit 
was commenced." Judge Eggleston — evidently without his usual 
reflection — " The witness will confine himself to the case in Switzerland 
county." "I except." The witness knew nothing of the actual case 
before the jury, and retired. The plaintiffs then proved a most aggra- 
vated case, and the jury retired under the charge of the Court. Judge 
Eggleston sat silent upon the bench, with his head resting upon his 
hands, for a few minutes, then raising his head : Mr. Sheriff, bring 
that jury into court." "Gentlemen of the jury, the Court erred in 
rejecting the offered evidence of the assault and battery in Dearborn 
county. This is not a local action. The statute of limitations is only 
a bar in a civil action where it is pleaded ; there is but one count in 
the declaration, charging but one assault and battery, and that the 
defendant has justified by his plea ; there is no new assignment or 



32 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

replication of aggravation ; the proof oifered should have been admitted, 
and under the circumstances, although somewhat irregular, although 
the fault was with the Court, we will hear the evidence now." The 
proof of the assault in Dearborn, on my client by the plaintiff, was 
positive ; and the jury, under the charge of the Court, returned a ver- 
dict for the defendant. In the mean time the statute of limitations 
had run against the Switzerland case, and no other suit was afterward 
brought. It is due to the distinguished counsel to say that they had 
no idea or intimation that there had ever been any difficulty between 
the parties, except the one for which the suit was brought. — That fact 
was our only defense, and was kept a secret from the plaintiff's attor- 
neys, or they would, of course, have defeated the defense. 



A DOGBERRY. 

Shortly after this case, came on to be tried before the associate 
judges, Fugit and Atkinson of Decatur Circuit Court, a case against 
a man for refusing to work his two days on a school-house, the statute 
requiring each " able-bodied man " to work his two days. The case 
came up on an appeal. The facetious James T. Brown for the defend- 
ant, and I had the good luck to be employed by the school commission- 
ers. The case was important, as there were several other refractory 
cases waiting the result of this one. The ease was submitted to the 
Court ; the evidence was conclusive, and I opened to the associate 
judges, for the plaintiff; Mr. Brown arose with the greatest apparent 
confidence, addressing the Court, " There is one point in the case that 
is conclusive against the plaintiff." " What is that? " says I. " You 
have not proved that my client is an able-bodied man." As he said 
it his client walked up and stood directly fronting the judges. He 
was a man about six feet high, square-shouldered, with an arm as large 
as the leg of a common man, red head, wearing immense whiskers 
(mustaches were confined at that day entirely to the French barbers). 
"Mr. Brown," I said, " is that man your client." Brown gave him a 
contemptuous look. " Yes sir." '- Do you contend that he is not an 
able-bodied man?" " May it please your honors, I do not wish to 
pivot my case on that point." The argument closed ; the case was 
with the Court. Judge Fugit, "Mr. clerk hand me the papers; the 
jury will be discharged till morning, as it will take the Court all the 
afternoon to decide this case." The judge spread the papers and 
looked them over for some time, and at length began by reading aloud 
the summons, the subpenas for the witnesses and returns of the con- 
stable and sheriff. "There is some informality, but the Court thinks 



A FAMILY DIFFICULTY — HOW IT WAS SETTLED. 33 

they will do. We now come to the great question of the case : is the 
defendant an able-bodied man? Yes, Mr. Brown, that is the question. 
You plead well on that, but it was nothing but the plea of a lawyer : 
you admitted that the man that stood before us was your client, and 
the Court will take notice ^fishio' as the law books say, that he is an 
able-bodied man, and no mistake ; judgment for two dollars." This 
was the great leading ease, and settled all others. My clients paid my 
fee of five dollars, congratulated me upon the result, and years after- 
ward gave me their united support for Congress. 



A FAMILY DIFFICULTY — HOW IT WAS SETTLED. 

After I went to Connersville, I purchased a farm below town ; and 
built the house the present residence of my friend, Samuel W. Parker. 
The builder, Richard Miller, was laying the foundation one morning 
when my nest neighbor, Capt Larkin Sims, who owned the farms imme- 
diately adjoining mine, came to where I was standing. •' Good morning 
Mr. Smith ; you are building a new house. It is said that lawyers' houses 
are built on fools' heads, but 3'ou will never get my head under this 
foundation." " I hope not, Captain," and he passed on. Some weeks 
after the Captain came to my office, and reminded me of what he had 
said ; " But," says he, " I have come to fee you — myself and wife can not 
live together any longer." " Why Captain, what does this mean, you 
have got one of the best wives I know among all my neighbors. I 
will call down this evening and see you both — there certainly can not 
be any thing irreconcilable between you." The Captain left without 
a word of reply, and that evening I walked down to his house. I was 
met at the door by the Captain and taken into his parlor. Sally, his 
wife, soon came in, and seemed glad to see me. Each party related 
their disagreements, with the cause, not forgetting the most minute 
particulars. The principal cause of the difficulty, at least on the sur- 
face, was, that one morning Sally requested one of her sons to take up 
the ashes from the fire-place. The Captain sent him off to plough, 
and Sally took up the ashes herself. I decided that the Captain was 
in the wrong. He smiled and said nothing, but Sally, perhaps too 
warmly, applauded my judgment. I then began to suspect that there 
was more at the bottom than the ashes. Some days after, the Captain 
called and required me to file a bill for divorce, on the ground that 
their difficulties were irreconcilable, and they could no longer live 
together. They had ten grown children, several of them married, with 
families. The bill was filed, the divorce granted, the property and 
3 



34 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

children equitably divided, and Sally moved to the house, and part of 
the farm assigned her. The Captain kept the homestead, soon after 
married a young woman in Rush county, and brought her home ; but 
the end was not yet. The Captain was soon laid low, as all believed, 
upon a bed of death : his young wife refused to nurse him, and took 
her household goods and left. Sally heard of his condition, went to 
his house, nursed him by day and by night, watched over, comforted 
and encouraged, as in their former days. The Captain was finally 
restored to health, obtained a divorce from his young wife, and a few 
weeks afterward, the second marriage was solemnized between those, 
who should never have been separated. They sold their possessions, 
and removed to Missouri ; the Captain was soon after taken sick, and 
died, and his faithful wife, after nursing him through his last sickness, 
closed his eyes, and followed his remains to his last earthly resting- 
place. 



VARIETY. 35 



[Friday Morning, July 17, 1857. 

VARIETY. 

Lest the variety of these sketches should invite criticism, let it be 
remembered that one of the greatest mysteries presented to our 
minds is the unlimited variety stamped upon all created things. Ask 
the astronomer if he can jjoint to two stars in the firmament of the 
same magnitude and brilliancy. Ask the mineralogist if he can 
find two pebbles precisely alike in every particular, and then step 
into the Hall of the House of Representatives at Washington, and 
after looking at those columns of beautiful pebble marble that sup- 
port the dome, answer the question for yourselves. Ask the botanist 
if he ever finds two flowers, or even two leaves, that would bear the 
application of the microscope, and still be alike in every particular. 
Ask the pilot at the helm if he ever crossed the Atlantic in succes- 
sive voyages, with even the trade winds blowing upon his sails, with 
precisely the same force. Ask the navigators of the polar seas, if 
ever they saw two icebergs of precisely the same altitude and 
dimensions. Ask the divine if ever he preached two sermons from 
the same text precisely alike in manner and matter? Ask the farmer 
if he ever saw two fields of wheat with precisely the same number 
of heads of precisely the same length, and containing the same 
number of grains of the same size. Ask the anatomist if ever he 
saw two human skeletons alike in all particulars. Ask the surgeon 
if he ever saw two fractures precisely alike. Ask the physician 
if he ever had two eases that were entirely alike in every particular. 
Ask the mental philosopher if he ever knew two minds precisely 
alike ; and then ask yourself, reader, if ever you saw two faces that 
were exactly alike, after you became intimately acquainted with 
them. If these questions be answered as they must be. then it 
follows that as mind governs the action of men, the same variety is 
stamped upon all human actions, and hence the unlimited variety 
of actions that are being tried in all the courts of the civilized 
world. 

The unwritten common law has long since been declared by Lord 
Coke, a great English jurist, to be " the absolute perfection of rea- 
son." It is understood by all courts, whose minds can arrive at that 
perfection. The statute laws are continually changing, and present 
a part of that endless variety that occupies the time of the courts. 
Modern legislators are not content to let the established and well 
understood statutes remain, but under specious pretexts, as to 
" reform and simplify the laws," as in this State, introduce innova 



36 EAELY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

tions that will take years to understand, and cost suitors millions 
to pay the expenses of re-educating the lawyers. There never was 
very great difficulty, on the part of a well-trained, legal mind, in 
deciding what the law is abstractly. The great difficulty is in the 
application of the law to the particular case. The same remark 
applies with equal force to the medical profession. I had a beloved 
brother, Moses B. Smith, M. D., of Philadelphia, whose remarks to 
me some years before he died I can not withhold. I had been 
absent from Pennsylvania — my native State — some eleven years, and 
returned a member of the twentieth Congress from the Third Con- 
gressional district of Indiana. The subject of the West naturally 
came up, and with it the practice of medicine. My brother was a 
physician of great experience and of a high reputation — a student 
of Dr. Chapman, and a graduate of the Pennsylvania University. 
"Brother Oliver, I learn that the Homeopathic physicians are getting 
into the ^Yest." " They are, and some like them very well." " Let 
me give thee (he was an Orthodox Quaker) a word of advice growing 
out of my long experience." " I will gladly receive it." " In select- 
ing your family physician, take a regular old-school graduate, but 
of the best common sense. I would rather trust my life with a 
strong, vigorous, common-sense Homeopathic or Thompsonian doctor, 
as much as I am opposed to their system, than with the most scientific 
Allopathist, who looks to his books alone, without the judgment 
necessary to make the application of his reading. Almost every thing 
depends upon the judgment in the application. Two physicians, 
regular graduates, may take similar cases, and hold in their hands 
the same medical work, describing and treating the disease. The 
one will let his patient die, while the patient of the other will get 
well. My next advice is, never employ a physician who does not 
be punctual to the minute in his appointed calls. I owe much of 
my success to a strict observance of this rule. The mind greatly 
controls the success of the remedy, and nothing affects a patient 
more than to be disappointed by his physician in his calls." 

So it is in the practice of law. Every thing depends upon the 
application of the law to the facts of the particular case, and the 
variety of these facts, will continue to keep the courts in session 
throughout the civilized world to the end of time. The best lawyer 
is he who sees his case in all its phases, so as to distinguish it from 
all other cases, and be able to point out clearly to the mind of the 
court and jury, the difference or similarity in principle, between 
his case, and some other case in the reported decisions, that may 
seem to be against him. 



LORD MANSFIELD — SARGEA.NT TADDY. 37 

LORD MANSFIELD. 

While the profession should spend their lives in the study, it is 
to be regretted that too many of our young lawyers leave off before 
they have fairly begun. Some years ago I was kindly invited by the 
Senior class about to graduate, to deliver the address at the commence- 
ment of the State University at Bloomingtou. Dr. Wylie was then 
President. I was at the time a United States Senator. A called 
session was about to commence, and I had to decline the invitation. 
But I took the occasion to address the young gentlemen in a note, 
thanking them for their invitation, in which I called their attention 
to an anecdote of Lord Mansfield, and a young British lord, who 
had recently received his diploma as a counselor at law. They were 
sitting on opposite sides of the table at a hotel in London. Lord 
Mansfield. — " My Lord, will you refresh my recollection of the time 
the late murder was committed on London Bridge?" "I recollect 
the time perfectly, it was the same night that I finished my studies." 
" Indeed, and have you finished your studies. You must be a 
remarkable young man, my Lord, to have finished your studies so 
young. I have been forty years at the bar, and on the bench, and 
I have scarcely begun my studies." The rebuke was deeply felt by 
the young lord. Without a word, he rose, bowed to Lord Mansfield, 
and retired from the room. This young Lord was at a late period 
of his life one of the justices of the court of Kings' Bench, and a 
profound scholar. 



SARGEANT TADDY. 

Pardon me, while my mind is across the great waters, for giving 
a characteristic anecdote of Sargeant Taddy, one of the most eminent 
practitioners of the King's Bench. The Sargeant indulged in a 
glass of wine at dinner, but was one of the best read of the class of 
students that applied to the court for admission with him. The 
custom then was to examine the applicants for admission in open 
court, before robed judges with their wigs and cocked hats on. The 
judges asked the questions in person, selecting the most difllicult, 
and always requiring a perfect knowledge of the history of England 
before a license would be granted. The court met to examine the 
applicants. The class was composed of Taddy, Scarlett, and many 
other of the first minds of the age. Sargeant Taddy. — "May it 
please the court, will your lordships permit me to make a single 
request before this examination commences ? " Chief Justice. — " Most 
certainly." " It is simply this : I hope your lordships will bear in 



38 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

mind in this examination, that it is easier to ask a question than to 
answer it."' The examination commenced and lasted hours. It was 
thorough, and the class being able to receive their diplomas, presented 
their lordships with a glass of wine, as was the custom of the day. 
The Chief Justice. — "Mr. Taddy, we have not forgotten your 
request ; do you think you could ask the court a question they can 
not answer?" Taddy, bowing — " Shall I try?" " Yes, we will hear 
you with pleasure." "I will ask your lordships a question that 
must be familiar to you all, as it is in the history of England, I 
presume. Who was god-father to the first Prince of Wales?" ^ Their 
lordships passed the question around, tried to refresh their recollec- 
tions, and took another glass of wine. Chief Justice. — " We give 
it up, Mr Taddy ; not one of us can tell. Who ivas god-father to 
the Prince?" Taddy, with a triumphant smile on his countenance — 
" I have no knowledge whatever, my lords, upon the subject; I merely 
asked your lordships for information." Another glass, and Sargeant 
Taddy was ever afterward a special favorite of the King's Bench. 

At the time referred to it was the custom in England, and up to 
a much later date in America, for both judges and lawyers to indulge 
freely in rich dinners, wine parties and cards. When I commenced 
riding the Third Circuit, it was the universal custom of the judges 
and bar, to meet after supper, in some upper room of the tavern, 
and play cards and drink, sometimes till near morning. I had never 
played a card in my life, nor did I touch a drop of spirits, and 
although I was one of the young attorneys, I set my face, my 
example, and my kind reproofs of the brethren of the bar, against their 
practice. I have lived to see it gradually give way, and finally cease — 
I trust and hope for ever. 



A MAL-PKACTICE CASE — A LEARNED WITNESS. 39 



[Saturday Morning, July 18, 1857. 

A MAL-PRACTICE CASE A LEARNED WITNESS. 

At a term of the Rusli Circuit Court, came on for trial an important 
case against Dr. Sexton for mal-practice, in failing to cure a case of 
whitlow on the plaintiffs finger. The doctor was one of the first sur- 
geons in the State. I was employed to assist my young friend, Charles 
H. Test, in the defense ; Amos Lane and James T. Brown for the 
plaintifi"; damages claimed $10,000; Bethuel F. Morris and his "side 
judges" on the bench. It was admitted that the fingers of the hand 
in question were drawn to the palm, and entirely stiflF, when Dr. Sex- 
ton was first called. Preparatory to the trial, the doctor had placed 
in my hands " Bell on Surgery," giving me an opportunity to under- 
stand his case. The prosecuting witness was a little pock-marked 
Irish doctor, whom I call by the uncommon name of Smith. He had 
been but a few years from the Emerald Isle, with a "rich brogvie " 
upon his tongue, and a good spice of the blarney, and withal a very 
laudable ambition to become the competitor of Dr. Sexton. — Like 
death " he chose a shining mark." He professed to be a regular gradu- 
ate from a college in Cork, and with the most significant look would 
draw from his pocket a round silver medal, upon which was stamped 
" Dr. Smith, diploma," and exhibit it to the gaze of the people. The 
doctor would have succeeded well had he confined himself to a country 
practice, and, as my ancient friend, Jeremiah Cox, of Richmond, said 
in the senate, to " common doctoring with pills and powders, and let 
surgenary alone." It seemed that he had heard of this whitlow case, 
had got up the prosecution against Dr. Sexton, and now stood upon 
the witness-stand as the main, and indeed only witness for the plaintiff. 
He clearly testified to the mal-practice of Dr. Sexton, and most tri- 
umphantly pointed to the stiff fingers. " What more do you want but 
the hand ye see? " The plaintiff rested, and my duty of cross-ques- 
tioning the Doctor commenced. " Doctor, you say this was mal- 
practice." " I do, sir." " Are you a regular surgeon ? " "I suppose 
I am." " Have you a diploma ? " "I have, sir." Will you let me see 
it? " " I will not, sir." " It is in your pocket, is it not? " " It is, 
sir." " Then hand it out." Counsel for plaintiff. — " We object; it is 
a private docviment, and no notice has been given to produce it, nor 
has a subpena diices te cum been issued." The Court. — " Objection 
sustained." " Well, Doctor, is not your diploma silver, about the size 
of a dollar ? " " Suppose it is — what's that to you." " You swear 
that this was mal-practice ; do you understand that the muscles were 
contracted and the fingers stiff, with the ends drawn into the palm of 



40 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the hand, when Dr. Sexton first called ? " "I understand so." " Do 
you think you could have straightened the fingers and given elasticity 
to the joints in that state ? " " Certainly." " What would you have 
applied to the case ? " "A poultice of slippery-elm bark." " Doctor, 
what character of whitlow was this ? "Was it seated under the cuticle 
near the root or side of the nail, or in the cellular membrane under 
the cuticle, or in the theca or sheath of the flexor tendons, or in the 
periosteum." It was evident that this question struck the Doctor all 
aback. It was, in the language of my facetious friend, Jas. T. Brown, 
on another occasion, " all Greek and turkey tracks," to the witness. 
Witness greatly confused, large drops of perspiration falling from his 
chin, and looking imploringly at the Court, " Must I answer such 
questions ? I did not come here to be examined as if I was before 
a College of Physicians asking a diploma ! " Judge Morris. — "The 
question is proper, the witness must answer." " I shan't answer — 
the Court may send me to jail." It was apparent to me that the doc- 
tor thought he could not make his position worse than it was becoming 
on the stand, and that going to jail would be a fortunate escape. "You 
could answer if you would, doctor." " Certainly I could, in a moment 
of time." "But you wont do it?" "Not I." "Doctor, do you 
think this was a case of Paronychia? " " O^iohat did you say?" " Of 
Paronychia ? " "I shan't answer." " You could answer if you would, 
Doctor." " Surely I could," stepping about on the floor, and becoming 
more agitated. " Doctor, might not this have been a case of onychia 
maligna ? " "I shall answer no such questions." " You could answer 
if you would." " In a minute." " Don't some of the authors that 
you have read, speak of the disease under the divisions I have named ? " 
" I believe they do." " Which of them. Doctor? " " I shan't answer." 
" You could tell me if you would." " Yes sir, I could name fifty of 
them." " Please name one ? " " I shan't do it." "Doctor, do not 
some of the authors you have read, say that in certain stages of the 
disease, it is proper to use lunar caustic and other escharotics ? " "I 
tell you I shall answer no such questions." " You could give me the 
names of the authors if you would. Doctor." " Indeed could I, as long 
as your arm." Here the counsel for the plaintiff" rescued the doctor. 
" May it please the Court, we will press this case for the plaintiff" no 
further ; let the jury find for the defendant in the box." Verdict and 
judgment accordingly. 



A QUEER CLIENT, ETC. 41 

A QUEER CLIENT. 

Judge Morris. — " The case of Israel Cox vs. James Greer." 
" Ready, " says Mr. Charles H. Test, for the plaintiff. " Ready," said I, 
for the defendant. This was an action of slander brought by Cox 
against Greer for charging plaintiff with stealing defendant's hogs. 
Plea, not guilty of speaking the words. Greer was an old, peaked-nosed, 
lantern-jawed man, with a head resembling an old possum and an eye 
as keen as a rat's ; he was genei'ally about half drunk. The jury was 
sworn, the plaintiff's witnesses proved equivalent words to those laid in 
the declaration, but not the exact words. I had taken the words down, 
and had the dog-ears turned down in Espinasse to show that the proof 
of equivalent words will not do. The evidence was closed. Judge 
Test had addressed the jury in a most eloquent speech of some two 
hours, repeating Shakspeare, " He who steals my purse steals trash, 
but he who filches from me my good name takes that which naught 
enriches him, but makes me poor indeed." The court-room was in a 
little low log cabin on the west side of the public square, with only 
one window, and a pane of glass out of the lower sash. I rose with 
my back to the window, stated the issue, and in a loud voice, " Gentle- 
men of the jury, the Court will tell you that proof of equivalent words 
won't do; I say you must find for the defendant; there is no proof 
that he ever spoke the words." I paused and at the moment my voice 
ceased in the room, old Greer, my client, run his head through the 
vacant sash by my side, and roared out at the top of his voice, "Smith 
don't lie ; I did say he stole my hogs and I will never deny it." I 
turned to the court, " I do wish the court would send my client to 
jail, he has been drunk and crazy ever since this ease has been in 
court against him." Judge Morris. — "Sheriff, take him to jail and 
keep him there until the trial is over." " As I was saying, gentlemen, 
there is no evidence before you that the words were ever spoken by 
my client. You must be governed by the evidence given in upon 
oath." My position was ably met and contested by the closing coun- 
sel, but the Court charged with me, verdict and judgment for the 
defendant, and I had my client discharged from jail after court 
adjourned, without resorting to a writ of habeas corpus. 



PREJUDICIAL EFFECT OF EVIDENCE. 

Judge Morris. — " the State vs. Chas. Malory, for larceny." " Ready 
for the prisoner," says James T. Brown. " Ready for the State," says 
the county prosecutor. The charge was for stealing a horse. The 



42 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

prisoner had assured Mr. Brown that there was not the least shadow 
of evidence against him. Brown had taken, or rather been promised, a 
fee contingent upon his acquittal, and took his seat by the side of the 
prisoner with apparent confidence. The jury was soon impanneled, 
and the owner of the horse testified that the animal was taken out of 
his stable at night; that a light snow had fallen, and next morning- 
he tracked the horse from the stable door, followed the track some 
ten miles at a rapid pace, and overtook the prisoner on the horse, tied 
his legs under the animal, brought him back, and put him in jail. 
The prosecutor rested, and waived the opening speech. Mr. Brown 
arose, " May it please the Court, gentlemen of the jury, one short 
hour ago I could have addressed you with pleasure and entire confi- 
dence in the innocence of my client, but since that time the evidence 
has been heard, and I must confess that it is well calculated to preju- 
dice your minds against my client." Verdict of guilty — sentence two 
years to the penitentiary. 



EARLY PEACTICE — SPECIAL PLEADING, ETC. 43 

[Monday Morning, July 20, 1857. 

EARLY PRACTICE-SPECIAL PLEADING. 

Quite early in the liistory of the courts in the Third Circuit, the 
science of special pleading, as taught by the first edition of Chitty, 
and Saunder's Reports, was made the daily study of the bar. Daniel 
J. Caswell and his partner, William C. Drew, were at the head of 
the special pleaders, and soon became a terror to all plaintiffs, and 
their attorneys. It was said that on one occasion they pasted a 
general demurrer on the back of the docket at Versailles, and got 
five dollars from each defendant for continuing each cause, with leave 
to the plaintiffs to amend by the next term. Such was the alarm, 
when they were employed, that old John Allen, of Franklin county, 
called up Judge John Test, his lawyer, about midnight one stormy 
night, took him around the corner of the house, and whispered in 
his ear — "John, beware of them demurrers; I heard Caswell talkins: 
about my case." One of these demurrers was argued a whole day 
by Charles Dewey and Harbin H. Moore, two distinguished lawyers, 
before the associate judges of Clark county. Mr. Moore closed the 
argument in a powerful speech. One of the associate judges, who 
had just waked up — " Mr. Moore, do I understand that a demurrer 
means a dispute?" Moore, with great indignation and contempt — 
" Yes, your honor." " Then the opinion of the Court is that the 
demurrer go." Moore. — '■• Which way shall it go? " " Mr. Moore, I 
will let you know that you are not to ram your rascality down the 
jaws of justice in this court; take your seat." This was conclusive, 
and the entry was " the demurrer go." 



JOHN B. WELLER'S CASE. 

While we practiced on the Indiana side, upon the strict rules 
of pleading of the Kings' bench, on the Ohio side they were on 
the other extreme, and maintained a kind of a quasi " oretenus " 
system. A citizen of Wayne county went over to Hamilton, Ohio, 
purchased several barrels of salt, and gave his note, under seal, for 
the amount — some sixty dollars. Failing to pay the note, suit 
was brought in tlie Wayne Circuit Court upon it. I was employed 
for the defendant, and John B. Weller, now of California, appeared 
for the plaintiff. The rest of the Indiana bar agreed to stand off, 
in word and deed, and see the result. I was to have five dollars for 
each time I could continue the cause. The case was not reached 
until near the close of the term, but was ultimately called. Mr 



44 EAELY INDIA?^A TRIALS. 

Weller. — " I demand judgment." " I ask oyer of the note." Judge 
Eggleston. — " The oyer must be furnished." Mr. Weller. — " I forgot 
to bring the note with me ; I must continue the cause." " I consent 
without an affidavit," and cause continued. Case called at next term. 
Mr. Weller. — " I have the note, and demand judgment." " I file ten 
special pleas and ask a rule to reply." Weller. — " I ask copies of the 
pleas, and ask the rule for replications to operate at nest term." " I 
shall not object." Cause continued and copies furnished. The next 
term ; Case called. Weller. — " I file a replication to one plea and 
demurrers to the other nine." " I join in demurrer." Case argued. 
Judge Eggleston. — " Demurrer sustained to four pleas, and overruled 
as to five." " I ask leave to amend the four pleas." Judge Eggle- 
ston. — "Leave granted." By this time the case was so mixed up in 
special pleading that my young Ohio friend was completely hors de 
conihaf, and came across to my seat with a compromising look : '• Well, 
Mr. Smith, what will you do to end this vexatious case ? " " Let the 
cause be continued and you may take judgment at the next term 
on the note." We had no defense — the note was just. " Agreed." 
Cause continued, and at the next term judgment was entered accord- 
ingly, but the end was not yet. Mr. Weller published me in one of 
the Hamilton papers as one of the most troublesome litigious lawyers 
he had ever met. 



THE END OF THE MILITIA SYSTEM. 

In the early history of Whitewater, the military spirit ran high 
and all aspirants for honors and places were solicitious to make 
stepping-stones of militia offices. But in time the military spirit 
began to abate, and officers to resign. One instance I recollect : Our 
statute required all inferior officers, to serve five years, unless the 
brigadier general, for sufficient cause, would accept a resignation. 
Capt. William R. Morris, of Brookville, tendered his resignation to 
Gen. John T. McKinney, and assigned his reasons. " First, I am 
not fit for the office ; second, the office is not fit for me." Gen. 
McKinney. — " Resignation accepted on the first ground." The whole 
system seemed to be on its last legs, when all at once arose into 
public notice, in the county of Wayne, the man for the occasion, 
in the person of Major Lewis. He was a young man, like Julius 
Caesar, of a weak body, but with the military ambition of a Charles 
XII. Although but a lieutenant he became a candidate for major, 
and having no opposition was triumphantly elected. The first step 
of the Major was to provide himself with a splendid blue uniform 



THE END OF THE MILITIA SYSTEM. 45 

coat, covered with gold lace and large gilt-eagle buttons ; a coat that 
Napoleon himself might have worn while commanding at Austerlitz ; 
a chapeau, in imitation of the one worn by Gen. Jackson at the 
battle of the Horse Shoe, surmounted by a towering red plume, with 
a white tip ; epaulets that might have graced the shoulders of Blucher 
as he led the Prussian army to the aid of Wellington at Waterloo ; a 
true Damascus blade in its brilliant scabbard, reaching to the feet ; 
boots of the Suwarrow order, reaching ixp to his seat, with a pair of 
gold-plated spurs with shanks a foot long. The great military 
parade, which was to revive the spirit of the revolution, was soon 
to come oflF, near the east fork of Whitewater, under the command 
of Major Lewis in person. Captains were required to be early in 
the field, with their respective commands, " armed and equipped as 
the law directs." The great and memorable day at last arrived. 
The parade-ground was early filled with waving plumes and crowds 
of anxious citizens. The aid-de-eamp of the Major came galloping 
into the field in full uniform, directly from head-quarters, and halted 
at the marquee of the adjutant. In a few minutes the order from 
the Major was given, in a loud military voice, by the adjutant 
mounted on a splendid gray charger : " Ofiicers to your places, 
marshal your men into companies, separating the barefooted from 
those who have shoes, or moccasins, placing the guns, sticks and 
corn-stalks in separate platoons, and then form the line, ready to 
receive the Major." The order was promptly obeyed, in true military 
style, when at a distance Major Lewis was seen coming into the 
field, with his aids by his side, his horse reai'ing and plunging, very 
unlike old " Whitey " at the battle of Buena Vista. The brilliant 
uniform of the Major and his high waving plume pointed him out 
as distinctly as the military bearing of my friend James Blake, 
when marshal of the day in after years at Indianapolis, marked him 
to the eye of thousands, who were looking for Greneral William 0. 
Butler, and who recognized the Greneral at once. The line was 
formed ; the Major took position on a rising ground, about a hundred 
yards in front of the battalion ; rising in his stirrups, and turning 
his face full upon the line — " Attention the whole." Unfortunately 
the Major had not tried his voice before in the open air, and with 
the word "Attention" his voice broke, and "the whole" sounded 
like the whistle of a shrill fife. The moment the sound reached 
the line, some one at the lower end, with a voice as shrill as the 
Major's, cried out " Children, come out of the swamp, you'll get 
snake bit." The Major pushed down the line at full speed. " Who 
dares insult me?" No answer. The cry then commenced all along 



46 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the line, " You'll get snake bit, you'll get snake bit." The Major 
turned and dashed up the line, but soon had sense enough to see 
that it was the militia system that was at an end, that it was not 
Major Lewis that was the main object of ridicule. He dashed his 
chapeau from his head, drew his sword and threw it upon the ground, 
tore his commission to pieces, and resigned his office on the spot. 
The battalion dispersed, and militia musters were at an end from 
that time forward in the Whitewater country. 



SHARP PRACTICE. 

To the credit of the young lawyers in those days, they almost 
committed to memory the few books we had, not forgetting the con- 
stitution of the State. Among the most industrious and learned 
was my friend Cyrus Finch, of Centerville, who died young. We 
had a little pass before the associate judges of Wayne county ; that 
the profession will appreciate at this day. The case was an assumpsit. 
I was for the defendant, and Mr. Finch for plaintiffs. He proved 
that my client had promised by parol to pay a debt another person 
owed his client. The evidence closed; I thought I "had" him, 
and took up the statute and read to the associate judges from the 
chapter on frauds and perjuries — " No action shall be brought to 
charge any person upon any promise to answer for the debt, default 
or miscarriage of another, unless the promise is in writing, signed 
by the party to be charged." This I supposed settled the case, but 
not so. Mr. Finch. — " Hand me that book. If the court please, 
that law is void under the Constitution of the United States ; it 
reads, ' No State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of con- 
tracts.' " I saw I was gone. The Court. — " The Constitution of the 
United States must prevail : judgment for the plaintiff." 



A CASE OF ARSON — KENTUCKY PRACTICE. 47 

[Tuesday Mornino, July 21, 1857. 

CASE OF ARSON-KENTUCKY PRACTICE. 

Before taking up the Fall Creek trials for the murder of the Seneca 
Indians, I will continue the recollections of some lighter cases. I 
have sketched an incident upon special pleading with a distinguished 
member of the Ohio bar, and have stated that the Indiana bar, in that 
science, were the closest practitioners. We had the pleasure often, 
also, of meeting the gentlemanly lawyers from the Kentucky side of 
the river, in our courts in Deai'born and Switzerland, and of seeing 
their mode of practice. I found their forte to be in speeches to the 
jury, and not in watching the evidence in its introduction, as we did 
on the Indiana side. At a term of the Dearborn Circuit Court, a 
colored boy was indicted for arson in burning the barn of Greneral 
Pike, near Lawrenceburgh. I was attorney for the State, and Messrs. 
Vawter and Armstrong, of Boone county, Kentucky, appeared for the 
prisoner, under some understanding that they were to have the boy 
for a term of years upon his acquittal. The evidence of the burning 
was first given to the jury. I then proceeded to give evidence of the 
confessions of the boy while the barn was burning. — The boy, being 
suspected by the neighbors, was seized and threatened, that unless he 
confessed and told all about it, he would be thrown into the flames 
and burnt alive. Under these threats the boy confessed, and told 
where he threw the chunk with which he had carried the fire to the 
barn. While all this evidence was given, the counsel for the prisoner 
sat quiet without making any objections, and when I closed, proceeded 
to cross-question the witness. I then proved by another witness that 
the chunk was found at the place described. The case here rested 
until after dinner. Court met; no evidence for the boy offered, and 
the argument commenced. I had little to say. The proof, as the case 
stood, was conclusive. Mr. Armstrong rose and spoke over four hours, 
with great eloquence, appealing frequently to the sympathy of the jury, 
but said nothing about the law of the case. Col. Vawter, the senior 
of the firm, then arose with Peak's Evidence in his hand, and com- 
menced with the law of the case, that confessions extorted from the 
witness by threats of personal violence were not evidence, and calling 
upon the jury to reject it. Had he made the objection to the court at 
the proper time, the evidence would have been excluded, and the 
prisoner acquitted, but his practice in Kentucky had suffered him to 
sleep upon the proper application of the law to his case at the right 
time. Judge Eggleston charged the jury. The prisoner was convic- 
ted and sentenced five years to the penitentiary. 



-18 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

A CASE OF MISUNDERSTANDING. 

For the more immediate consideration of the profession, and to take 
their legal opinion, a sketch of two cases that arose before the associate 
judges upon the defense of " tender," may not be out of place. They 
were cross actions, and came before the court at the same time, and 
were submitted together. I call the parties John Jones and James 
Backhouse. The facts : Jones was raised and educated in that part of 
New York, called the Genessee country, and Backhouse was an Ohioan, 
from near Cincinnati. In New York, where Jones came from, they 
called " shell-bark hickory, " " shag-bark walnut," and "ground hogs " 
" woodchucks." In Ohio where Backhouse came from they called 
" shag-bark walnut, " " shell-bark hickory, " and " woodchucks, '' 
" ground hogs." The parties met accidentally and Jones proposed to 
sell to Backhouse " ten nice walnut logs, " for his saw mill. Back- 
house, supposing of course that they were " black-walnut logs, " agreed 
to give a dollar a-piece for them on delivery at his mill-dam. Back- 
house then in turn proposed to sell Jones two tame " ground hogs " 
that he had at home for fifty cents each, which Jones agreed to give, 
and to receive and pay for them when the first log was delivered. 
Jones cut the logs, loaded one on his wagon and drove down to the 
dam to unload. Backhouse happened to be there ; " What is that 
you have there ? " " One of the logs. " " What logs ? " " Why one 
of those walnut log*- you bought of me. " That's no walnut log. " 
" Yes it is, as fine a ' shag-bark ' walnut as grows in Indiana. " " It's 
no such thing, it is nothing but a shell-bark hickory. " " Will you 
receive it? I tender it to you with the other nine, under our contract 
and demand my pay. " " I shall not receive it, but am read}' to receive 
the black-walnut logs I bought of you." "Then let me have the 
ground hogs I bought of you, I am ready to pay for them. " " Come 
down to the house and you shall have them. " At the house — " There 
they are, Mr. Jones." " What, them groundhogs, dew tell ! " " Yes, 
a pair of as fine ground hogs as I ever saw, and perfectly tame. " 
" They are no ground hogs, they are nothing but woodchucks. I 
would not give a cent for them, the pestering things bored our ground 
all hollow in York State." " I tender you the ground hogs and 
demand the pay." " I shall not touch them woodchucks, but am 
ready to receive and pay for the ground hogs under our contract." 
The parties were strictly honest men, wholly incapable of the supgesfio 
falsi or the svpressio veri, as was admitted by the learned counsel that 
argued the case. Associate justice Ogden. — " We have heard this case 
with attention and unusual interest, and I must say that after years 
of experience as justice of the peace and on this bench, I have never 



A CASE OF MISNOMEE, ETC. 49 

had a more difficult ease to decide. The ease will be taken under 
advisement to consult the lawyers and judges of the other courts.'' 
Entry " curia advisare vult.'^ 



A CASE OF MISNOMER. 

" MoFriTT t'S. Flowers," said the associate judge, "are the parties 
ready ? " " Ready," says Mr. Henry C. Hammond for the plaintiff. 
" Ready," says Flowers in person. The action was brought on a phy- 
sician's bill for attendance on Lucinda, the wife of the defendant. 
Flowers was a kind of country pettifogger, who came up to the opinion 
of Judge Mills, of Kentucky, when granting a law license to Davis 
Flournoy, who had failed to answer a single question, but who boldly 
and impertinently persisted in urging the judge to grant him a license. 
" Well, Mr Flournoy, make out your license, and I will sign it , you 
have two of the qualifications of a village attorney. " " What are 
they, sir?" "Impudence and ignorance, sir." Flowers, however, 
had read " Espinasse on Misnomer." Mr. Hammond opened the 
case to the court, aud then took up the account of his client and com- 
menced reading. " To visit and anodyne " " Stop, " says Flowers, 

in a voice of thunder that startled the court and bystanders, " stop 
reading;" and rising to his feet— " I demand a non-suit.'" The 
Court. — " IJpon what ground?" *' Upon what ground ! why of mis- 
nomer." "Of what?" "Of misnomer; her name is Lucinda and 
not Anodyne." The Court. — " Was she ever called or known by the 
name of Anodyne?" " Never that I ever heard of" This was a 
damper — a perfect chevanx cle frieze in the way of the plaintiff. 
Counsel for plaintiff. — " AVe will suffer a non-suit and try him again, 
as we see the Court is dead set against us." The Court. — " Let the 
non-suit be entered, and the next time bring the suit in the right 
name." 



THE BLARNEY STONE. 

I WAS sitting in my office at Connersville, one day, when in stepped 
an Irishman, whom I call John Wood, of Union county, and told me 
he had been recommended to me for sound counsel in an important 
case. He had arrived in America directly from Cork, Ireland, only 
a few years before, bringing with him his wife and several children as flir 
as Hamilton county, Ohio, where by pure accident he and his " ould wo- 
man "had somehow got separated and had not lived together for sev- 
eral years, and his business with me was to employ me to file a bill 
for a divorce in the Union Circuit Court. We soon agreed on the 
4 



50 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

fee, twenty dollars, and he left. I immediately filed the bill and had 
the notice published in the paper for the next term. The old woman 
by mere accident, also, saw the advertisement and thereby found out 
for the first time where the man had stopped after he had left her, and 
came directly over to the residence of the old man. The whole mat- 
ter was soon reconciled between them. Soon after the settlement the 
old man called at my ofiice in fine humor. '• Mr. Smith, the ould woman 
and myself have made up." "Indeed ! well I am very glad of it, you 
are both too old to separate." " I know you're glad ; you are a good 
man ; I just came over to see what you intend to charge a poor man 
like meself who has made up with me ould woman." " I charge you 
twenty dollars, Mr. "Wood." " Ah sure, Mr. Smith, you'll not charge 
a poor body twenty dollars. The moment I landed at New York I 
heard of you Mr. Smith, that ye was a kind-hearted man and a dis- 
tinguished sargeant in the law, as ye are Mr. Smith." " I charge you 
only ten dollars Mr. Wood." " Surely, Mr. Smith you will not charge 
a poor body ten dollars for such a little matter as this. Mr. Smith, I 
have been acquainted with all the great barristers of Ireland, with the 
Ponsonbys, the Emmets, the Grattons, the Currans and the Burkes, 
but there is not one of them that is aiqual to you, Mr. Smith ; you are 
so approachable in court, and you can take such grand distinctions in 
the law." "I charge you nothing Mr. Wood." "Ah! you are a 
gentlemanly man, Mr. Smith, surely you icill pay tlie Printer." Mr. 
Wood was the only man I ever knew that always carried the " blarney 
stone " with him and knew just how to use it. 



THE INDIAN MURDERS. 51 

[Wednesday Morning, July 22, 1857. 

THE INDIAN MURDERS IN 1824. 

At the time of the Indian murders on Fall Creek, the counti'y was 
new and the poj^ulation scattered here and there in the woods. The 
game was plenty, and the Indian hunting-grounds had not been for- 
saken by several of the tribes. The white settlers felt some alarm 
at the news of an Indian encampment in the neighborhood, and 
although they were all friendly, a watchful eye was kept on all their 
movements. The county of Madison had been organized but a short 
time before. Pendleton, with a few houses, at the foils, was the seat 
of the new county ; Anderson, on White River, was a small village ; 
Chesterfield and Huntsville were not then heard of. There were 
only a few houses between Indianapolis and the falls, and still fewer 
in other directions from the capital. Early in the spring of the year 
1824, a hunting party of Seneca Indians, consisting of two men, three 
squaws, and four children, encamped on the east side of Fall Creek, 
about eight miles above the falls. The country around their camping 
ground was a dense, unbroken forest filled with game. The principal 
Indian was called Ludlow, and was said to be named for Stephen 
Ludlow, of Lawrenceburgh. The other man I call Mingo. The 
Indians commenced their season's hunting and trapping — the men 
with their guns, and the squaws setting the traps, preparing and 
cooking the game, and caring for the children — two boys some ten years 
old, and two girls of more tender years. A week had rolled round, 
and the success of the Indians had been only fair, with better pros- 
pects ahead, as the spring was opening, and raccoons were beginning 
to leave their holes in the trees in search of frogs that had begun to 
leave their muddy beds at the bottom of the creeks. The trapping 
season was only just commencing. Ludlow and his band, wholly 
unsuspicious of harm and unconscious of any approaching enemies, 
were, seated around their camp fire, when there approached through the 
woods five white men — Harper, Sawyer, Hudson, Bridge, sen., and 
Bridge, jr. Harper was the leader, and stepping up to Ludlow, took 
him by the hand and told him his party had lost their horses, and 
wanted Ludlow and Mingo to help find them. The Indians agreed 
to go in search of the horses. Ludlow took one path and Mingo 
another. Harper followed Ludlow, and Hudson trailed Mingo, keep- 
ing some fifty yards behind. They traveled some short distance from 
the camp when Harper shot Ludlow through the body : he fell dead 
on his face. Hudson on hearing the crack of the rifle of Harper, 
immediately shot Mingo, the ball entering just below his shoulders 



52 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

and passing clear through his body. Miugo fell dead. The party 
then met, and proceeded to within gun-shot of the camp, Sawyer 
shot one of the squaws through the head. She fell and died without a 
struggle. Bridge, sen., shot another squaw, and Bridge, jr., the other 
squaw. Both fell dead. Sawyer then fired at the oldest boy but only 
wounded him. The other children were shot by some of the party. 
Harper then led on to the camp. The two squaws, one boy and the 
two little girls lay dead, but the oldest boy was still living. Sawyer 
took him by the legs and knocked his brains out against the end of a 
log. The camp was then robbed of every thing worth carrying away. 
Harper, the ring-leader, left immediately for Ohio and was never 
taken. Hudson, Sawyer, Bridge, sen., and Bridge, jr., were arrested, 
and when I first saw them they were confined in a square log jail, 
built of heavy beech and sugar-tree logs, notched down closely and 
fitting tight above, below, and on the sides. I entered with the 
sheriff. The prisoners were all heavily ironed, and sitting on the 
straw on the floor. Hudson was a man of about middle size with a 
bad look, dark eye, and bushy hair, about thirty-five years of age in 
appearance. Sawyer was about the same age, rather heavier than 
Hudson, but there v/as nothing in his appearance that could have 
marked him in a crowd, as any other than a common farmer. Bridge, 
sen., was much older than Sawyer ; his head was quite grey, he was 
above the common bight, slender, and a little bent while standing. 
Bridge, jr., was some eighteen years of age, a tall stripling. Bridge, 
sen., was the father of Bridge, jr., and the brother-in-law of Sawyer. 
The news of these Indian murders flew upon the wings of the winds. 
The settlers became greatly alarmed, fearing the retaliatory vengeance 
of the tribes and especially of the other bands of the Senecas. The 
facts reached Mr. John Johnston at the Indian Agency at Piqua, 
Ohio. An account of the murders was sent from the Agency to the 
War Department at Washington City. Col. Johnston and William 
Conner, visited all the Indian tribes, and assured them that the gov- 
ernment would punish the offenders, and obtained the promise of the 
chiefs and warriors that they would wait and see what their " Great 
Father " would do before they took the matter into their own hands. 
This quieted the fears of the settlers, and preparation was commenced 
for the trials. A new log building was erected at the north part of 
Pendleton, with two rooms, one for the court, and the other for the grand- 
jury. The court-room was about twenty by thirty feet, with a heavy 
" puncheon " floor, a platform at one end three feet high, with a strong 
railing in front, a bench for the judges, a plain table for the clerk, in 
front on the floor a long bench for the counsel, a little pen for the prison- 



AN ANECDOTE. 53 

ers, a side bencli for the witnesses, and along pole in front, substantially 
supported, to separate the crowd from the court and bar. A guard 
by day and night was placed around the jail. The court was com- 
posed of Wm. W. Wick, presiding judge, Samuel Holliday and Adam 
Winchell, associates. Judge Wick was young on the bench, but with 
much experience in criminal trials. Judge Holliday was one of the 
best and most conscientious men I ever knew. Judge Winchell was a 
blacksmith, and had ironed the prisoners ; he was an honest, rough, 
frank, illiterate man, without any pretensions to legal knowledge. 
Moses Cox was the clerk ; he could barely write his name, and when a 
candidate for justice of the peace at Connersville, he boasted of his 
superior qualifications, " I have been sued on every section of the 
statute and know all about the law, while my competitor has never 
been sued and knows nothing about the statute." Samuel Cory the 
sherifi", was a fine specimen of a woods' Hoosier, tall and strong- 
boned, with hearty laugh, without fear of man or beast, with a voice 
that made the woods ring as he called the jurors and witnesses. 
The county was thus prepared for the trials. In the meantime the 
government was not sleeping. Col. Johnston, the Indian agent, was 
directed to attend the trials to see that the witnesses were present 
and to pay their fees. Gen. James Noble, then a United States Sen- 
ator, was employed by the Secretary of War to prosecute, with power 
to fee an assistant ; Philips Sweetzer, a young son-in-law of the-Gen- 
eral, of high promise iu his profession, was selected by the General as 
his assistant ; Calvin Fletcher was the regular prosecuting attorney, 
then a young man of more than ordinary ability, and a good criminal 
lawyer. The only inn at Pendleton was a new frame house near the 
creek, still standing by the side of the railroad bridge. 



AN ANECDOTE. 

The term of the court was about being held. The Sunday before 
the term commenced, the lawyers began to arrive, and, as the custom 
was in those days, they were invited out to dine on the Sabbath, 
by the most wealthy citizens, as a favor and compliment, not to the 
lawyers, but to their hosts. We had a statute in those days imposing 
a fine of one dollar on each person who should " profanely curse, 
swear, or damn," and making it the duty of all judges and magis- 
trates to see that the law was enfoi'ced upon ofienders in their presence. 
Judge Holliday invited Calvin Fletcher, the circuit prosecuting attor- 
ney, and his Indianapolis friend, Daniel B. Wick — the brother of the 
judge — to dine with him. The invitation was accepted, of course, 



54 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

there being no previous engagement in the way. Dinner was an- 
nounced ; Judge Holliday asked a " blessing " at the table — Mr. 
Fletcher declining. The judge had killed a fat goose for the extra- 
ordinary occasion, which was nicely stuffed with well-seasoned bread 
and onions, and placed in the center of the table. Mr. Wick, who 
was not a church -member, fixed his eye upon the goose, and said by 
way of compliment, " That is a damned fine goose. Judge." " Yes, it 
is a fine goose, and you are fined a dollar for swearing." Not a word 
more was spoken at the table. Dinner over. Judge Holliday said, 
" Squire Wick, pay me the dollar." " I have not a cent, Judge, with 
me." "Perhaps Mr. Fletcher will lend it to you." Mr. Fletcher. — 
" I really have only enough with me to pay my tavern bill." Judge 
Holliday. — " What is to be done ? " Fletcher. — " Lend him the money, 
Judge, and take his note, or bind him over to Court." "I'll bind 
him over; you'll go his security?" " The rules of the Court forbid 
lawyers from going security for any one, but you can go it yourself; 
just draw the recognizance that ' Daniel B. Wick, and Samuel Holliday, 
appeared before Samuel Holliday, associate judge of the Madison 
Circuit Court, and acknowledged themselves to be indebted to the 
State in the penalty of twenty-five dollars each for the appearance of 
Daniel B. Wick at the next term of the court to answer.' " The sea- 
sonable proposition of Mr. Fletcher was at once accepted by all par- 
ties. • The recognizance was taken in due form, and forfeited at the 
next term, by the absence of Mr. Wick. Judgment icas rendered 
against Judge Holliday for twenty-five dollars. A petition to the 
Governor was drawn up, and signed by the whole bar : a remittance 
soon followed. The trial of Hudson commenced the next day after 
the Sabbath dinner, at Judge Holliday's, and will be sketched in mj 
next. 



TBIAL OF HUDSON. OO 

[Thuksdat Morning, July 23, 1857 

TRIAL OF HUDSON. 

A WORD of explanation before my sketch to-day commences. It 
has already been asked whether I have quit the practice of law, 
supposing that my whole time was occupied with these reminiscences. 
While I was a student of law, my habit was to lay down heavy 
reading the moment my mind was no longer able to understand 
and retain the previous chapter, and take up works of a diiferent 
character — Plutarch's Lives, History, Travels, Voyages, and Adven- 
tures—until my mind was sufficiently rested, and then resume my 
studies. At the time I commenced these sketches, I was preparing 
some heavy briefs for the Supreme Court of the United States, 
and my mind needed rest. Instead of reading, I employed the time 
I have to spare in bringing up early incidents. I have kept no 
notes, and am drawing entirely upon my recollection, which in most 
cases I find very distinct. Pardon this disgression. 

The day for the trial of Hudson, one of the prisoners arrived. 
A number of distinguished lawyers were in attendance from this 
State, and several from the State of Ohio. Among the most prominent 
I name General James Noble, Philips Sweetzer, Harvey Gregg, 
Lot Bloomfield, James Earideu, Charles H. Test, Calvin Fletcher. 
Daniel B. Wick and William R. Morris, of this State; General 
Sampson Mason and Moses Vance, of Ohio. Judge Wick being 
temporarily absent in the morning, William R. Morris arose and 
moved the associate judges — " I ask that these gentlemen be admitted 
as attorneys and counselors at this bar ; they are regular practitioners, 
but have not brought their licenses with them." Judge Winchell. — 
"Have they come here to defend the prisoners?" "The most of 
them have." " Let them be sworn — nobody but a lawyer would 
defend a murderer." 

Mr. Morris. — " I move the court for a writ of habeas corpus, to 
bring up the prisoners now illegally confined in jail." Judge 
Winchell.—" For what?" " A writ of habeas corpus." " What do 
you want to do with it?" " To bring up the prisoners and have them 
discharged." "Is there any law for that ? " Morris read the statute 
regulating the writ of habeas corpus. " That act, Mr. Morris, has 
been repealed long ago." " Your honor is mistaken, it is a con- 
stitutional writ, as old as Magna Charta itself." " Well, Mr. Morris, 
to cut the matter short, it would do you no good to bring out the 
prisoners, I ironed them myself, and you will never get them irons 
ofi" until they have been tried, habeas corpus or no habeas corpus. 



56 EAKLY india:n^a teials. 

Per curia. " motion overruled." Judge Wick entered and took his 
seat between the two side judges. " Call the grand-jury." All 
answer to their names, and are sworn. Court adjourned for dinner. 
Court met; the grand-jury brought into court an indictment for 
murder drawn by Mr. Fletcher against Hudson. Counsel on both 
sides. — '• Bring the jjrisoner into court." The Court. — " SheriiFput in 
the box a jury." Sheriff. — " May it please the Court. Dr. Highday 
just handed me a list of jurors to call on the jury." Judge Wick. — 
" Bring Dr. Highday into court." " Did your honor wish to see me ?" 
" Dr. Highday is this your handwriting." " I presume it is." " Dr. 
Highday we have no jail to put you in, the one we have is full ; hear 
your sentence, it is the judgment of the Court that you be banished 
from these court grounds till the trials are over ; Sheriff, see the 
judgment of the Court carried strictly into execution." 

I digress to give the scene in court, published by General Sampson 
Mason, in a Springfield, Ohio, paper. " As I entered the court-room 
the judge was sitting on a block, paring his toe nails, when the sheriff 
entered, out of breath, and informed the court that he had six 
jurors tied, and his deputies were running down the others." General 
Mason, with all his candor, unquestionably drew upon his imagina- 
tion in this instance. 

Hudson, the prisoner, was brought into court by the Deputy Sheriff 
and two of the guard. His appearance had greatly changed since 
I first saw him in the log pen with his comrades in crime. He was 
now pale, haggard and downcast, and with a faltering voice, answered 
upon his arraignment, " Not Guilty." The petit-jury were hardy, 
honest pioneers, wearing moccasins and side-knives. The evidence 
occupied but a single day, and was positive, closing every door of 
hope to the prisoner. The prosecuting attorney read the statute 
creating and afiixing the punishment to the homicide, and plainly 
stated the substance of the evidence. He was followed for the 
prisoner, in able, eloquent, and powerful speeches, appealing to the 
prejudice of the jury against the Indians; relating in glowing colors 
the early massacres of white men, women and children, by the 
, Indians ; reading the principal incidents in the history of Daniel 
Boone and Simon Kenton ; relating their cruelties at the battle of the 
Blue Licks and Bryant's Station, and not forgetting the defeat 
of Braddock, St. Clair, and Harmar. General James Noble closed the 
argument for the State in one of his forcible speeches, holding 
up to the jury the bloody clothes of the Indians, and appealing to 
the justice, patriotism, and love of the laws of the jury, not forgetting 
that the safety of the settlers might depend upon the conviction of 



A NEW MODE OF PROCUKING A SIGNATURE. 57 

the prisoners, as the chiefs and warriors expected justice to be done. 
The speech of the general had a marked effect upon the crowd, as 
well as the jury. Judge Wick charged the jury at some length, 
laying down the law of homicide in its different degrees, and dis- 
tinctly impressing upon the jury that the law knew no distinction ► 
as to nation or color ; that the murder of an Indian was equally as 
criminal in law as the murder of the white man. The jury retired, • 
and next morning brought into court a verdict of " guilty of murder 
in the first degree," motion for a new trial overruled. The prisoner 
brought into court, and sentence of death pronounced in the most 
solemn manner, by Judge Wick. The time for the execution was 
fixed, as is usual, for a distant day. In the meantime Hudson 
made his escape from the guard one dark night, and hid himself in a 
hollow log in the woods, where he was found and arrested. 

Time rolled on, the fatal day for the execution Arrived. Multitudes 
of people were there. Among them were seen several Senecas, 
relatives of the murdered Indians. The gallows was erected just 
above the falls, on the north side. The people covered the surround- 
ing hills, and at the appointed hour, Hudson, by the forfeiture of 
his life, made the last earthly atonement for his crimes. Such was 
the result of the first case on record in America, where a white man 
was hung for killing an Indian. The other cases were continued 
until the next term of the court, and will be the subject of a distinct 
sketch. 



A NEW MODEOF PROCURING A SIGNATURE. 

Before the court adjourned there occurred an incident that I 
notice, not for its importance, but as a kind of relief reminiscence 
after the narration of the tragedy of Hudson. The grand-jury was 
still in session, and Mr. Fletcher, the prosecuting attorney, was 
before them examining the witnesses. A ease was presented against 
an individual for selling whisky by retail without license. The , proof 
was positive. The question was put and the jurors unanimously 
voted for a bill to be drawn. Mr. Fletcher drew the bill, presented 
it to the foreman, and asked him to sign it. " I shall do no such 
thing, Mr. Fletcher, I sell whisky without license myself and I 
shall not indict others for what I do." " If you don't si^n it I 
will take you before Judge Wick." =' What do I care for Judge Wick, 
he knows nothing about such matters." Mr. Fletcher. — " The grand- 
jury will follow me into court." In the court-room. — " This fore- 
man of the grand-jury refuses to sign his name to a bill of indict- 
ment against a man for selling whisky without license." Judge 



58 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

"Wick. — " Have twelve of tlie jury agreed to find the bill ? " " Yes, 
eighteen of them." " Foreman, do you refuse to sign the bill." 
" I do." " Well, Mr. prosecutor, I see no other way, but to leave 
him to his conscience and his God ; the grand-jury will return to 
their room." In the grand-jury room, the foreman said, "I told 
you that Judge Wick knew nothing about such cases." Mr. Fletcher. — 
" I am only taking the legal steps to have the bill signed." " "What 
are you going to do now, why are you stripping off your coat?" 
" The law requires the last step to be taken." " What step is that? " 
" To thrash you until you do sign the bill." " Don't strike Mr. 
Fletcher, and I will sign the bill." "Here it is, sign it." The fore- 
man signed the bill, and the jury returned into court. Judge Wick. — 
" Has the foreman signed the bill." " He has." " I thought his 
conscience would not let him rest till he signed it." 

I now have six months before me, before the other Fall Creek 
trials came on, and with the consent of the reader, I will sketch some 
intermediate scenes. 



A " EEGULATOR " CASE. 59 

[Friday Morning, July 24, 1857. 

A "REGULATOR" CASE, ENDING BADLY FOR EVERY BODY. 

Early in the summer of 1819, when the jurisdiction of the Fayette 
Circuit Court extended over the whole White river country, some 
seventy-five miles west, including what are now the counties of Rush, 
Shelby, Johnson, Morgan, Marion and Hamilton, — Christopher Ladd 
and William Eagan, while paddling their canoe above the blufis on 
White river, observed large collections of buzzards, or vultures, on a 
sand-bar and the surrounding trees. Ladd had shot at a deer in the 
woods the day before, and supposed it might have made for the river 
and died. The canoe was directed to the sand-bar, where the buzzards 
were, and there, entirely exposed, lay the skeleton of a man, nearly 
stripped of flesh. Notice was given, and the whole neighborhood were 
soon there, among others, a company of Regulators, by the names of 
Statts, Awfield, Doneghy, Laughlin and Deweese. It was on the 
Sabbath. A deep grave in a little adjacent island was dug and the 
skeleton of the stranger was buried ; Ladd and Eagan standing at the 
grave till the last. The Regulators retired in a body to the shade of 
some cotton-wood trees ; after a few minutes earnest conversation, which 
Ladd observed with some misgivings, returned to the grave and openly 
charged Ladd with being the murderer. Ladd was taken into their 
custody and his gun taken from him. Every man carried his gun in 
those days, even to church. The Regulators with their prisoner soon 
arrived at the cabin of Jacob Whitsell, the father of Cyrus Whitsell, 
who gave me the facts of this sketch. Just below the bluffs a consult- 
ation was had, and the question arose as to what they should do with 
Ladd. The Regulators held their own courts. Judge Lynch presiding, 
in that day. — Some were for hanging him, others for tying him up 
and lynching him. So stood the case, when father Jacob Whitsell, 
who was a man of influence with them, though he was not one of 
them, stepped in and told them that there was no evidence whatever 
against Ladd, that if he had been the murderer he would have either 
buried the body, or thrown it into the river, and the Regulators would 
never have heard of it ; besides, Ladd was a man of good character 
and advised them to discharge him. The vote was taken, and Ladd 
was discharged and set at liberty by the casting vote of the captain. — 
But the end was not yet. Ladd immediately went to Brookville and 
employed Caswell and Drew to bring an action in the Fayette Circuit 
Court against the Regulators for false imprisonment. The suit was 
brought. I was present at the trial in 1820. Gen. James Noble and 
William W. Wick appeared for the defendants. There was a crowd 



60 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

of witnesses in the court. The facts were clearly proved. I recollect 
distinctly the arguments of the counsel. It was an early case in my 
professional life, and my school of practice has always been in closely 
observing trials, too much neglected by law students. The case was 
opened in a brief speech by Mr. Drew for plaintiff, Mr. Wick fol- 
lowed for the defendants. His effort was to discredit the plaintiff's 
witnesses and especially Hugh Ensley, one of the very worst looking 
men that could be found in all the "New Purchase." Ensly had 
sworn to some miraculous facts against the defendants. "Wick took 
up his evidence and in a loud voice, " Who do you learn these facts 
from, gentlemen of the jury? I answer, old Hugh Ensley, a man 
whose countenance in any other country would hang him." Ensley 
was standing just behind the railing near Wick. He jumped several 
feet from the floor and bawled out, " Let me at him and I'll fix Ms 
countenance." The Court.—" Sheriff, take Ensley out of the court- 
house." The counsel closed their arguments, and Judge Eggleston 
gave an able charge to the jury. — Verdict, §94, damages, costs, §1,500. 
Defendants all broken up upon execution, Ladd ruined in paying his 
lawyers' fees. 

JEMMY JOHNSON. 

The case of Dr. Byles against Jemmy Johnson may interest the 
the reader. The Doctor was a rather testy Scotchman, a graduate of 
the Edinburgh Medical University, and a pious Covenanter. He was 
thought, in the neighborhood, to be a good physician, and something 
of a surgeon, though in one case it was said he mistook the " os iscliium" 
for the "os coccygh^'' the '■'■ulna" for the " radius" and the ^^dura" 
for the " j)t'« mater.'''' The worst story that spread through the neigh- 
borhood against Dr. Byles, however, was that he never permitted him- 
self to be without a patient. If his last patient was likely to get well 
before he could get another, a small dose of ipecac^ night and morn- 
ing, or a portion of calomel and jalap occasionally, would keep the 
patient on hand a few weeks or months longer. These were all slan- 
ders, of course ; but still many believed them, and no one more 
strongly than Jemmy Johnson, the defendant, who was a large, pursy 
Irishman of some two hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois, with a 
remarkable rotundity. Like many of his countrymen, he carried upon 
his shoulders a good mathematical head, which enabled him at a 
single glance to measure solids into cubes, liquids into gallons, quarts, 
gills, drams and drops. Jemmy was a good Catholic and an honest 
man. It happened one day that Jemmy was driving the oxen and 
wagon of a farmer with whom he lived, past the residence of Dr. Byles, 



JEMMY JOHNSOX. 61 

and when some miles below, seated on tlie top of a load of hay, fell 
asleep and rolled off upon the ground. He was taken up for dead, 
conveyed to a neighboring cabin, and Dr. Byles sent for to attend him. 
The suit in question was brought by Dr. Byles for his medical bill 
against Jemmy. The account ran — "To surgical and medical attend- 
ance, §50, 00." The case being called for trial before the associate 
judges. Dr. Byles had to rely upon the evidence of Jemmy to prove 
the account. "Swear Jemmy Johnson." Jemmy is sworn. "State 
all you know about this case." " I will do that in short order. I fell 
from the load of hay and was kilt." "You didn't die?" "How 
could I be here if I had died?" "Go on." "As I said I was kilt, 
and they carried me to John Brown's, and brought Dr. Byles to see 
me. Now thinks I, for a year's sickness. Dr. Byles came up to me bed : 
says he, ' Jemmy, you were most kilt, was you afraid to meet your 
Savior.' ' Not a bit of it,' says I ' it was that other fellow I was afraid 
of.' The Doctor then emptied upon the table his medicine bags. 
' There,' says he, ' is half a pound of salts in that paper, that is a box of 
pills, that is a paper of powders, that vial is filled with drops. ' Now 
Jemmy,' says he, ' mark well my prescription, and you may yet live. 
You will take a pill each day, a powder every other day in the morn- 
ing, a drop every night, and a spoonful of salts at dinner once a week, 
until you have taken all I have left, when I will furnish you again. 
I will visit you every day till all the medicine is taken.' The Doctor 
left, and I made my calculation, and found that it would take three 
whole years to follow the prescription till I had taken all the medicine, 
and allowing him fifty cents a visit, his attendance would come to 
$547.50, to say nothing of my lost time and suffering all the while. 
So I called the ould woman, and told her to bring me a bowl and some 
molasses, and to put all the salts in another bowl : I poured the drops, 
powders and pills, into the molasses, and then turned in the salts, 
mixed it all together, and drank the whole of it without taking my 
breath at all, at all. The next day Dr. Byles came again, and says 
he, ' Jemmy, have you taken the pills? ' I told exactly what I had done. 
Says he, ' I wonder it had not killed you.' ' Kilt me, says I — I was 
well and at work in two days after : and how could it kill me? it only 
worked one operation ; I could swallow your whole apothecary shop. 
Dr., if you would bring it down here.' " No other testimony. The 
case submitted on the evidence of the defendant. Manwaring, Associ- 
ate. — " There is no evidence that the medicine was worth any thing. 
The proof is that it was of no account or it would have killed the defend- 
ant. There was no surgical operation performed. Two visits, however, 
are proved, they must be allowed — judgment for $1.00." 



62 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

"TROVER' FOR STEALING A LOG CHAIN. 

In the Jennings Circuit Court, the case of the State against George 
Washington Wren was called — the associate judges on the bench. 

William A. Bullock for the State, and William Carpenter, of Madi- 
son, an Irish barrister, for the defendant ; indictment for larceny for 
stealing a log chain. Mr. Carpenter. — " May it please the Court, I 
move to quash this indictment, on the ground that the action should 
have been trover." '• Upon what ground ? " — ' Why I say the action 
should have been trover." " How so? " " The indictment says ' one 
log chain, then and there hcing found, the property of John Brady ' — 
the very language of trover. How could he be charged with stealing if 
he found it?" There were no law books in court giving forms of 
indictment for larceny. The question was submitted to the Court 
without argument. The associates consulted together some time — 
read over the words aloud, again and again. " Then and there being 
found." " Mr. Prosecutor, the Court thii^ks it should have been an 
action for trover." Indictment quashed ; court adjourned ; the pros- 
ecuting attorney in a rage ; and the Irish barrister bursting with 
laughter. 

LEGIBLE HANDS. 

In the Fayette Circuit Court, State vs. Amos Henson. Indictment 
for obstructing the highway with " hens and hogs," meaning, of course, 
"trees and logs," but written as if it was liens and hogs, or so that it 
might be so read. I was young and mischievous, and moved the asso- 
ciate bench to quash the indictment on the ground that there was no 
statute against " hens and hogs" running at large. Motion opposed 
by Martin M. Kay, now of this city, prosecuting attorney, on the ground 
that the words were " trees and logs " and not " hens and hogs." Re- 
ply — " This must be decided by inspection, like a record on the plea 
of ' nnl ttel record,'' as there is no reported case that touches the ques- 
tion." Judge Webb. — " We think it is ' liens and hogs;'' the indict- 
ment is quashed, and hereafter let the prosecutor write a legible hand, 
and cross his t's and dot his i's, and not be troubling the court with 
such questions." 



A HERO CHARGED WITH HOG STEALI^^G. 63 



[Saturday Morning, July 25, 1857. 

A HERO CHARGED WITH HOG STEALING. 

The American army had reached Fort Meigs, under the command 
of Gen. Harrison. Major Whistler was in charge of Fort Wayne. 
The woods, on the Maumee, St. Joseph's and St. Mary's, were filled 
with hostile Miami Indians. Fort Wayne was besieged on all sides, 
and Major Whistler and his few men must soon surrender. The 
news of the desperate condition of the besieged reached General 
Harrison, and he determined at once to relieve Major AVhistler. 
Early one morning there was seen running toward the Fort a 
small man, pursued by several Indians from the woods. The fore- 
most of the pursuers was Joe Richardville, a Miami chief. The gate 
of the Fort was thrown open, and in rushed Col. William Suttonfield, 
and fell exhausted. He soon revived, took from one of his boots 
a dispatch from General Harrison to Major Whistler, informing the 
Major that he would promptly come to his relief, and requiring a 
return dispatch of the forces and position of the enemy then besig- 
ing the Fort. General Harrison had asked for a volunteer messenger 
to carry the dispatch to Fort Wayne, but no one was willing to take 
the hazard. Col. Suttonfield, then only a private, stepped forward 
and offered his services. He was accepted by the General, furnished 
with a fine horse, his dispatch concealed in his boot, and just at 
twilight he left the ai'my for Fort Wayne. His path led up the 
Maumee river. His fine animal carried him rapidly forward, and 
he seemed likely to reach the fort without even seeing the enemy, 
when, entering a dense undergrowth, he found himself in the very 
midst of the Miami chiefs and warriors. Chief Richardville, Joe 
Richardville, Francis Godfroy, Lewis Godfrey, and young Lafountaine, 
were there. The Indians sprang to their guns, and Colonel Sutton- 
field put spurs to his horse. Several rifles were fired at the flying 
Colonel. The chiefs mounted their fresh horses, pursued at a killing 
pace, and were fast nearing the Colonel, when his horse ran into 
a morass prairie, sank to his belly and could get no further. The 
Colonel sprang to his feet and ran for his life. The fort was distant 
some two miles. The horses of the Indians stuck in the same 
morass. The most active of the chiefs dismounted and pursued 
the Colonel. The fleetest. Joe Richardville, the favorite brave of 
the old chief, was only about a hundred yards behind when the 
Colonel entered the fort. The dispatch was read, giving great joy 
to the Major and his men. The return dispatch was soon prepared, 



64 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

and a volunteer messenger was called for by Major Whistler to 
carry it to Gen. Harrison. No one offered. Niglit was approach- 
ing, when Col. Suttonfield stepped forward and offered to carry the 
dispatch to Meigs if he was furnished with a fleet horse with untir- 
ing bottom. He was directed to select for himself, and at once 
made choice of a blooded sorrel mare, of the Major's. Night had 
come — it was clear moonlight — the gate of Fort Wayne was thrown 
open, and out bounded Col. Suttonfield with the speed of a deer. 
The eyes of the fort were upon him as he took the path down the 
Maumee and entered the woods. The sound of rifles reached the 
fort — the Colonel had again met the wily chiefs at a new encamp- 
ment. His clothes were perforated with balls, but he and his horse 
escaped without harm. The next day the Colonel took from his 
boot the dispatch of Major Whistler and handed it to Gen. Harrison. 
But the end was not yet. The Indian war was soon over, and the 
Colonel married an estimable lady and settled in Fort Wayne, 
where I first became acquainted with him. The reader will not ask 
me whether he was a brave man, and I will not stop to say that he 
was strictly honest. The Col. was a positive man in all he said or 
did, and of course had some enemies. Among others, he had a 
little squeaking neighbor, who had became offended at the Col., and 
in his absence at Indianapolis, spending a few weeks at a session 
of the Legislature, filed an afiidavit before Kobert Hood, a justice 
of the peace, against the Col. for marking his old sow with intent 
to steal her. The Col. on arriving at home heard of it, and went 
to the squire ready for trial. The squire only had jurisdiction to 
hear the case, discharge or recognize, as the case might warrant. 
The prosecutor was present. The Col. looked upon him with perfect 
contempt. " Squire, I demand a jury." Justice. — " Constable put 
a jury in the box." " There are only eleven jurors present." The 
Col., " Put the prosecutor on the jury." The prosecutor took his 
seat in the box. The squire. — " How shall I swear the jury ?" The 
Col. — " You do swear you will truly try and upon your oaths say 
whether Col. William Suttonfield marked the sow with intent to 
steal her or not." The jury were sworn, and the prosecutor examined. 
The Col. — " Now squire, I demand the ayes and noes." The Col. 
could neither read nor write. The squire. — " Each juror will answer 
as his name is called, guilty or not guilty. Constable call the roll." 
The jurors were called and all answered "not guilty," till the 
prosecutor was called. He hung down his head and squeaked out 
'• guilty." The Col. gave him another look of contempt. " Eleven 



DODGING A FEE, ETC. 65 

to one, acquitted almost unanimously." Squire Hood. — " It is con- 
sidered that Col. Suttonfield stands unanimously acquitted, except 
by the prosecutor, who the Court considers was governed by malice 
prepense and aforethought." 



DODGING A FEE. 

At a term of the Circuit Court of the United States. I wa.s 
requested by Daniel J. Caswell to be employed for Nicholas Long- 
worth, of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the wealthiest men of the State. 
I was highly pleased with the emploj^ment, looking forward, of 
course, to a liberal fee, punctually paid, as I was assured by Mr. 
Caswell would be the case. It was an action of ejectment brought 
by David Close, of Rising Sun, against Longworth for a tract of 
land in Dearbon county. Judge Holman was on the bench. Mr. 
Caswell had to leave for Columbus next day, and wished to deliver 
over the case to me, as the sole attorney for Longworth. Mr. 
Caswell left before the case was reached on the docket. The trial 
lasted several days, and was warmly contested by both sides. .Judge 
Holman charged the law against us, and the plaintiff recovered 
the land. I immediately informed Mr. Longworth, and requested 
him to pay me a fee of fifty dollars, about one-fourth what I should 
have charged him. He refused to pay me, on the ground that I 
was not his lawyer. Mr. Caswell then called upon him, as he told 
rae, and Longworth refused to pay him, because he had not attended 
to the case. This gave me enough of rich attorney clients, who 
would refuse to pay for services rendered them. Mr. Lonp-worth. 
besides being wealthy, was at that time a cunning lawyer. He had 
not then reached Jiis high position of successful rivalry of French 
vintners in Sparkling Catawba. His conduct in my case forcibly 
reminded me of the man that went into the grocery. " Let me have a 
glass of whisky?" "Here it is," handing it over. '-You may 
take back the whisky and give me crackers." " Here they are." 
Eats the crackers and is about leaving.' Grocer. — '■ Pay me for the 
crackers." " I gave you the whisky for them." " Then pay me 
for the whisky." " I gave the whisky back." " Well, hereafter 
pay as you go, it may be all right, but it don't exactly look so to me." 



FIRST SPEECH IN THE LEGISLATURE. 

I HAD been at Connersville about eighteen months, when to my 
surprise I saw my name announced as a candidate for the Legisla- 
5 



66 EARLY INDIANA fRIALS. 

ture. Notting was then further from my thoughts than to enter 
the field of politics ; my ambition was to make myself a good 
lawyer. I was elected, however, and the nest winter found me at 
Corydon — a representative of Fayette. It so happened that it was 
the greenest Legislature ever convened in the State. The raw material 
was not so defective, as the experience of the members. This 
accounts for the fact that the speaker. General Washington John- 
son, announced my name as chairman of the committee on the 
judiciary. On the third day of the session we went into joint con- 
vention to count the votes for Governor. William Hendricks was 
elected. The secretary had opened the envelops, and the counting- 
had progressed till the county of Decatur was called. This return 
was not sealed and directed as the constitution required. The 
bodies retired to their respective chambers to discuss the important 
question. Mr. Basset Mr. Howk, Gen. Stapp, Col. Scott, Col. James, 
Mr. Dumont and Dennis Pennington had spoken, when there seemed 
to be a pause. All eyes were turned to me, as the chairman of the 
judiciary committee, supposing, of course, that I knew all about it. 
The house was filled with a distinguished audience, from all parts 
of the State, and several from Kentucky. I arose. It was my 
first efi"ort in a legislative capacity, and much was expected by the 
audience. " Mr. Speaker," said I. These were my only words. I 
grew blind, and down I sank in my chair, almost unconscious, when 
Maj. Henry P. Thornton, who was our clerk, a great wag, sprang 
from his desk, ran to where I was seated, and whispered in my ear, 
" My dear sir, you must have studied your speech at home ; you 
have made a powerful constitutional argument." 



A "DIVINELY commissioned" THIEF-CATCHER. 67 

[Wednesday Mokxino, July 29, 1857. 

A "DIVINELY COMMISSIONED" THIEF CATCHER 

One night in tlie spring of 1823, Jolin Williams had his horse 
stolen from his stable iu Connersville. The woods for miles around 
were scoured by the citizens, and the horse was found in a thicket 
fjxsteued to a tree. A watch was set, and William Boice was taken in 
the act of feeding the animal. Boice was tried, convicted, and sen- 
tenced to two years' hard labor in the penitentiary, at the next term 
of the Fayette Circuit Court. I was attorney for the State at the 
time. Boice was taken to the State's prison by the sheriff. The word 
soon came from the keeper of the penitentiary that Boice had broken 
jail and escaped, and offering a reward of one hundred dollars for his 
capture and return to prison. The above common occurrence is merely 
introductory to what follows. It so happened that at this very period 
of time there lived not far from Connersville, a man I call Joseph 
Abrams, who was laboring under a peculiar delusion. He believed in 
"special providences — " that all men were created for special purposes, 
and set apart for the jjarticular work by the Almighty ; that they had 
no power to resist, nor could any harm come to them while engaged 
in their particular calling. In his particular case he believed that he 
was specially created and commissioned to take horse-thieves ; that he 
was required to be diligent in his calling. He had no doubt what- 
ever, that he could take with his single arm any number of horse- 
thieves, however armed, without any power on their part to do him 
harm. He never went armed himself, but always carried with him his 
pockets-full of ropes to tie the horse-thieves as he caught them. He 
was a large, young, powerful man, as active as a cat and fearless as a 
rifle. He believed, that as a part of his mission, he had the power 
given him of recognizing a horse-thief the moment he saw him. 

The news that Boice had escaped prison reached Abrams about 
sun-set in the evening; he said nothing to any one, but left town 
about ten o'clock that night. Squire Boss was traveling the road 
leading by the cabin of Boice, when all at once he heard loud screams 
ahead. Spurring his horse he soon arrived at the cabin. " As I rode 
up to the fence," he said, " I saw Abrams dragging Boice out of the 
door of the cabin, tied fast with ropes, and Boice's wife beating 
Abrams over the head and shoulders with a clap-board." It ap- 
peared that Abrams had demanded of Boice to open the door, that 
Boice had refused and armed himself with a butcher knife ; that 
Abrams broke down the door, seized Boice and wrested the knife 
from him, threw him upon the floor and tied him, while the wife of 



68 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

Boice was belaboring Abrams all tbe time. Abrams placed Boice 
upon his borse, tied bis feet togetber and immediately started with 
him for tbe penitentiary, and actually delivered him up to the keeper, 
and received his reward. Boice was a powerful man, weighing not less 
than two hundred pounds and as courageous as a lion. 

Soon after this occurrence, Abrams met John Willey, sheriff of 
the county, took him off his borse, tied him and carried him to a 
justice of tbe peace. I was sent for and had him discharged late at 
night. The fact that I had appeared for Willey caused Abrams to 
suspect me of being his accomplice, and the next day on my way to 
the Franklin Circuit Court, I met him in tbe road. I saw his pockets 
were full of ropes. " You are a horse-thief; get down and I will tie 
you." I smiled in his face, " Can't you wait until I come back and 
then tie me ? " " Will you say upon honor, that you will meet me at 
Connersville next Saturday ? " "Yes, I will." "Go then, but fail 
not at your peril." We parted. I returned home on Saturday 
morning ; Abrams was there. As we met in front of the old court- 
house, he gave me his hand with a fixed look, " You are discharged, 
your are no horse-thief, you have kept your promise." " Thank you, 
Mr. Abrams, I knew you would learn from the spirit of your mission 
that I was not one of them." — He smiled and we parted. 



A "POLITICAL PREACHER" IN A "FIX." 

I WAS early initiated at Connersville into tbe mysteries of election- 
eering, by several of tbe most adroit men of the country. Among 
them I name Marks Crume, who afterward held several high ofiices, 
and was one of the commissioners who concluded tbe treaty with tbe 
Pottawatamies of tbe Wabash. He was a warm supporter of Gen. 
Jackson, while I sustained Henry Clay. He bad represented Fayette 
county several times in the Legislature, and in 1836 was again a can- 
didate. I was anxious for his success, as I was about to become a 
candidate before the next Legislature for the United States Senate. 
and I knew him to be my fast friend. His competitor was a nameless 
Newlight preacher — long, lank and stoop-shouldered, wearing a blue 
muslin gown, a queue hanging down to bis waist, and his head covered 
with one of these old-fashioned corn-shuck hats, with a rim extending 
to his shoulders. He was a fair electioneerer, in open day. This 
Crume could meet. But he also preached at night. Here Crume 
entirely failed, although he was tbe son of the Eev. Moses Crume, of 
Ohio, who was said to have borne a striking personal resemblance to 
General Washington. 



COKONER CONNERY OUTDONE. 69 

There remained but a week before the election. Crume became 
alarmed. It was evidently to be a close contest. The next week the 
Battalion Muster, at Squire Conner's, four miles below Connersville, 
on Whitewater, was to come off. This was looked to by the candi- 
dates with much intei'est, as the closing of the campaign before the 
election. The preacher lived a few miles west of town, and having 
no horse, walked down early in the morning, expecting to get one 
there. Crume and his friends kindly offered to procure one, and 
borrowed of Robert Griffis a very small jackass. The preacher 
mounted when it was found his feet would drag upon the ground. 
This they immediately remedied by taking up the stirrups, drawing up 
the legs of the preacher like the letter K, his gown covering the whole 
jack but his head and ears, and oft" they started for the muster. 

Arriving at the field, the horsemen rode in at the bars, but the jack 
of the preacher " took the studs," and in spite of all the kicking, 
pounding and whipping, refused to budge an inch. The eyes of the 
battalion were soon directed to the preacher and his jackass, when 
suddenly the stubborn animal was seen to spring forward, and forcing 
his head through the rails, the hat of the preacher towering over the top 
of the fence, commenced braying at the top of his musical voice, 
while shout followed shout from the field. This was too much for 
the nerves of the candidate. With a great effort he forced back the 
head of the jack from the fence and turned his countenance toward 
town. A traveler met him slowly jogging up the road, evidently 
ruminating on the vicissitudes of political life. The morning paper 
gave us notice that he had declined. Crume was elected without 
further opposition, and, best of all, he gave me his vote for United 
States Senator. 

CORONER CONNERY OUTDONE. 

The recent mockery in the Dr. Burdell case at New York, before 
Coroner Connery, which filled the pajsers of that city, and a gaping 
public with morning news for two months, and ended in smoke, 
brings to my recollection a case of equal magnitude in early Indiana, 
except that no Mrs. Cunningham or Eckel, had been suspected of 
spiriting away the immortal from the mortal part of the body, over 
which the inquest was held. A man was found dead one cold morn- 
ing with his skull broken, lying in the woods. He had been seen the 
night before considerably intoxicated. The body was frozen. An 
inquest was held before noon of the same day before Coroner Clifford. 
The jury formed a hollow square ; the body in the center. Coroner 
Clifford : — " Gentlemen of the inquest, there are three things to be 



70 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

coasideied when a man commits suicide by killing his neighbor. 
First, did he come to his death by incidence. Second, did he come to 
his death by accidence. Third, did he come to his death by the hands 
of the incenduary. Look at the body, gentlemen, and return your 
verdict." The jury counseled nearly five minutes. Inquest. " We 
the jury find that the deceased came to his death by incidence, having 
put too much water in his whisky, causing him to freeze last night." 
Inquest returned ; coffin made ; the body carried to the grave ; funeral 
services performed before it was dark, and yet neither the New York 
Tribune, the Journal of Commerce, the Express, nor the Herald ever 
noticed the circumstance. 



A CONCLUSIVE SPEECH ON THE IMPROVEMENT 
OF THE WABASH CANAL. 

I AM tempted, lest I forget it, to sketch an incident on the passage 
through the House of Representatives of Indiana, of the Wabash 
Canal Bill, by which the State was largely involved, and the Euro- 
pean bond-holders, by subsequent legislation procured by their inde- ' 
fatigable agents, Charles Butler, of New York, and Michael Gr. 
Bright, of this State, were enabled to get possession of the Wabash 
and Erie Canal. The bill had been engrossed, and was to come up 
the next day on its final passage. The House and galleries were jam 
full. At an early hour the aisles were seated with ladies, and the 
doors and windows opened to give fresh air to the suifocating audience. 
The Speaker worked his way to the chair with difficulty, and called 
the house to order : not a sound was heard, all eyes were turned to the 
opposition benches. The bill was announced by its title. " This is 
the third reading of the bill, and the question is, shall the bill pass ? " 
A pause ensued, when Col. David Wallace, one of the most eloquent 
men in the State, arose, his fine black eye fixed upon the Chair, and 
with his musical voice and brilliant imagination, delivered a splendid 
eulogium upon the measure. He took his seat amid applause from 
all parts of the house. Mr. Rariden, his brother-in-law, the leader of 
the opposition benches, followed against the bill, in a most powerful 
common sense speech, that told with killing efi'ect upon its friends. 
He took his seat ; another pause, deep anxiety bordering on despon- 
dency depicted in the countenances of his opponents, when there was 
seen rising by the side of Col. Wallace, the tall and commanding 
figure of Col. John McNairy, the chosen orator of the Wabash Valley, 
and deeply identified with the passage of the bill. All eyes were 
upon him ; it was known that he always stuck to the question, while 



A CONCLUSIVE SPEECH ON THE CANAL BILL. 71 

his speeches were brief as a telegraph dispatch. The Colonel added 
to his fine person a loud, clear voice. Raising himself almost on 
tip-toe, at the very highest pitch, his eyes fell upon the Chair : 
" Mr. Speaker, our population on the Wabash am great, but our 
resources for salt am slim. Salt ! they can not emigrate up the 
Wabash." The Col. took his seat with great applause from the 
benches favorable to the passage of the bill. This speech was con- 
clusive. No one asked for the floor to reply. The question was put 
from the Chair, and the bill passed by a triumphant majority. The 
cannon fired, the bells rang, the city was illuminated, and all was 
joy and hilarity at the capital for weeks afterward. 



72 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Wedxesdat Morning, August 5, 1857. 

A POLITICAL JURY. 

The Fayette Circuit Court was held soon after the great contest for 
President had terminated in favor of Gen. Jackson against Henry 
Clay. There was perhaps never a more excited election in the coun- 
try. Gabriel Ginn was the Jackson candidate for Sheriff, and Robert 
D. Helm the Clay candidate. 

A few days before the election John Murphy, a very respectable 
citizen, and others, put in circulation a handbill against Helm, mak- 
ing charges against his integrity. Helm was defeated, and employed 
myself and Samuel C. Sample to bring suit for libel. The action was 
brought, and came on for trial at the next court. Both the Sheriff 
and his deputies were warm Jackson men, and it so happened that ten 
of the regular panel of jurors were of the same politics. James Rari- 
den, John T. Mc Kinney and Gen. James Noble appeared for the defen- 
dant. The regular panel were called and all answered. The Court. — 
" Does the plaintiff take the jury ? " " We are content." Gen. Noble 
at once challenged, peremptorily, the two Clay men ; the sheriff imme- 
diately filled their places with two leading Jacksonians. " We take 
the jury," says Eariden. " So do we ; let them be sworn." My client 
ran forward and whispered in my ear, " All is gone, they are all Jack- 
son men." We proved the publication beyond question. Mr. Sample 
opened very briefly for the plaintiff, and was followed by the defend- 
ant's attornies with their usual force, upon the question of law and 
fact. Each closed with a strong appeal to the politics of the jury, 
and the fact that the defendant was a Jacksonian and the plaintiff a 
Clayite, was pressed with all their power. My client whispered to me 
to give up the case and suffer a non-suit. 

As Gen. Noble closed his speech, about half past eleven in the fore- 
noon, Judge Eggleston, " Shall we adjourn now ? " "I prefer closing 
before dinner." " You certainly can not do that." " I'll try." " Gen- 
tlemen of the jury we are trying one of the most important questions 
that has ever been tried in the county. I hold the affirmative of the 
issue, the counsel opposed to me the negative, and you are to decide 
it by your verdict. It is, whether a Jackson man will regard his oath, 
and find according to the law and the evidence. You were selected 
because the counsel for the defendant supposed you would perjure 
yourselves to acquit their client. I believe that a Jackson man is just 
as honest as a Clay man, and will be no more likely to perjure himself 
to acquit a Jackson man, than would a Clay man to convict him. 
Your names are on the record ; the eyes of the people are upon you ; 



AN " infant" in court, etc. 73 

my client will not take a cent of yovir verdict; I oiily ask you to give 
his counsel fees, one liundred dollars." I occupied about fifteen min- 
utes. The jury retired, and before Court adjourned returned a verdict 
for the plaintiff of one hundred dollars damages. Judgment accord- 
ingly. ^ 

AN "INFANT" IN COURT. 

The Case of the widow of Thomas Beard, against his heirs, for her 
interest in his estate, was called. Mrs. Beard was an estimable widow 
lady when she married Thomas Beard and became his second wife. 
They each had large families of children, some married and some 
single, at the death of Mr. Beard. The claim of the widow was warmly 
contested by Mr. Rariden for the heirs, before the jury, in one of the 
strongest speeches I ever heard him make. He appealed with all his 
'power to the jury, aroused their sympathy for the poor infants about 
to be wronged out of their father's estate by the plaintiff, and having 
worked himself up to tears, left the jury weeping like children. As 
he closed I sprang to my feet, and at top of my voice, " Mr. Frazier, 
stand up ! " John Frazier, about six feet two inches high, square 
shouldered, large black bushy head, face covered with hair, about forty- 
five years of age, not less than two hundred and fifty pounds avoirdu- 
pois, stood up before the Court and jury. " That, gentlemen of the 
jury, is one of the infants that you and Mr. Rariden are crying about." 
It operated like a cold shower-bath upon the jury. The case was over, 
and my client obtained a verdict for all she claimed, and to which she 
was justly entitled. 

PATHETIC SPEECH SPOILED. 

The great numbers of criminal cases in the circuit adjoining the 
Ohio River, early invited to our side several young men from Ken- 
tucky, who had been trained in the Grundy, Rowan, Clay, Pope and 
Breckenridge school of advocacy, in which the success of the defense, 
like that of the play at the theater, depended as much upon the stage 
preparation, as upon the merits of the advocate or actor. One of these 
young professional advocates, I call Letcher, was employed to defend 
a young married man for stealing chickens, coop and all, and taking 
them down the river on a flatboat. Letcher was a large, fine looking 
young man, and of high order as a declaimer, but generally shot above 
the mark, or in the language of James, T. Brown, he seldom brought 
himself down to the comprehension of the Court and jury. This was 
to be his debut as an advocate among us, and his every motion was 
watched with interest. 



74 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

Early in the morning, before the case was called, there was seen on 
the witness-bench, the wife of the prisoner in deep mourning, her infant 
in her arms, and her little boy by her side, her mother, his mother, 
and two of his sisters, all in mourning — the prisoner sitting in the box 
nest them. 

The case was called, when Mr. Letcher rose and asked permission 
to have a short consultation with his client in the jury-room. The 
request was granted by the Court, with directions to the sheriff to see 
to them. The sheriff left them in the room, and then put his ear to 
the key-hole. Letcher to the prisoner. " You must be governed 
strictly by my directions. My speech will be divided into four parts, 
First^ the historical ; Second, the argumentative ; Third, the reply ; 
Fourth, the sympathetic. You must all sit quiet until I come to the 
fourth, or sympathetic, part, and then you will all burst out aloud and 
cry and groan as I proceed to a close ; the moment I stop, raise and 
throw your arms around your wife's neck, and kiss the baby." They 
returned into court. The jury impanneled — the evidence given. It 
was conclusive against the prisoner. The prosecuting attorney opened 
briefly. Letcher arose, all eyes upon him — " If the Court please, 
gentlemen of the jury, look at my client; look at his poor wife and 
little babe ; look at their aged and afflicted parents, sinking to their 
graves ! Oh ! gentlemen, can you find it in your hearts to send him 
to the penitentiary? " 

As he uttered the last word, the prisoner set up a loud howl, raised 
up, stepped forward and threw his arms around the neck of his wife 
and kissed the babe with all his might, while all the rest of the rela- 
tives joined in the chorus. The Court. — " What does all this mean? " 
Letcher. — " Only a mistake your honor ; my client mistook the histori- 
cal for the sympathetic part of my speech ; that is all." But the play 
was over, the curtain fell on a verdict and judgment of " guilty " — two 
years in the penitentiary. Letcher returned to Kentucky, where he 
said the prisoners could tell the difference between the " historical arid 
sympathetic " parts of a speech. 



BAD CONSEQUENCE OF CHANGING SHIRTS. 

The thousand and one amusing incidents that occurred on the cir- 
cuit, with the bar, will never find their way to paper. I may be 
excused, however, on account of the parties, for rescuing one of them 
from the common fate. James Whitcomb, Calvin Fletcher, Harvey 
Gregg and Hiram Brown, of the Indianapolis bar, " put up," as we 
say in the West, at the tavern of Capt. John Berry at Anderson- 



BAD COXSEQUENCES OF CHANGING SHIETS. 75 

town. Whiteomb was a perfect gentleman in his person and dress. 
He must shave every morning and j^ut on a clean shirt ; but as it was 
difficult to get washing done on the circuit, he put several clean shirts 
in his portmanteau and carried a night-shirt to sleep in, always chan- 
ging as he went to bed. Mr. Fletcher was a great wag, continually 
annoying Mr. Whitcomb, and sometimes others, with innocent tricks. 
Capt. Berry prided himself upon his tavern, and would often boast 
that " there might be better houses in New York, so far as the table 
was concerned, but as to his beds they could not be excelled in the 
United States ; that he had been to the great Astor House, before he 
opened, to see how things were done. He had not been at the table 
a minute before they presented his bill, and an impudent waiter asked 
him if he would have tea or coffee, and when he told him he would 
take tea, he asked him what kind of tea; he said " store tea, to be sure." 
The Captain had traveled the whole length of Broadway on Sunday ; 
was invited into church while the organs were playing, but excused 
himself on the ground that he " never danced, and if he did, he would 
not dance on Sunday." A single word against his tavern, his table, 
or his lodging room, was taken by the Captain as a great insult, and 
immediately resented without regard to persons. Fletcher knew the 
Captain well. They were intimate friends. Taking the Captain to 
one side Fletcher said, " Do you know, Capt. Berry, what Mr. Whit- 
comb is saying about your beds?" "I do not — what did he say?" 
" If you will not mention my name, as you are my particular friend, 
I will tell you." " Upon honor I will never mention your name — 
what did he say ? " " He said your sheets were so dirty that he had 
to pull off his shirt every night and put on a dirty shirt to sleep in." 
" I'll watch him to night." Bedtime came. Captain Berry was look- 
ing through the opening of the door when Mr. Whitcomb took his 
night-shirt out of his portmanteau, and began to take off his day shirt. 
Captain Berry pushed open the door, sprang upon Whitcomb, and 
threw him upon the bed. The noise brought in Mr. Fletcher and the 
other lawyers, and after explanations and apologies on all sides the 
matter was settled. But Mr. Whitcomb, years afterward, as he told 
me, found out what he suspected at the time, that Mr. Fletcher was at 
the bottom of the whole matter. 



76 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Saturday Morxing, August 8, 1857. 

AN EARLY LEGISLATURE IN INDIANA. 

In August 1822, I was elected to tlie Legislature from Fayette, and 
late in November mounted my pony and started for Corydon, the tem- 
porary seat of government. My way led by Madison, then a small 
village. Late in the evening of the third day from home, I rode up 
to a little frame house, about the center of the town, to which I was 
directed as the only hotel. My horse was taken at the steps by a slim, 
flaxen-haired youth of a hostler. I had a first-rate supper, a sweet, 
clean bed, a good breakfast, and left on my journey in the morning, 
the landlord, as I supposed, being from home. The next Monday the 
House of Representatives met in the old court-house at Corydon. 
John F. Ross, the clerk, called the roll ; " County of Jefferson," when 
to my surprise, my flaxen-headed hostler stepped forward, in the per- 
son of Gen. Milton Stapp, in after years Lieutenant Governor, and one 
of the most distinguished men of the State. The roll calling progressed, 
as I stood by the side of the General he bowed and smiled. The 
" County of Vanderburgh and Warrick : " I saw advancing a slender, 
freckled-faced boy, in appearance eighteen or twenty years of age. I 
marked his step as he came up to my side, and have often noticed his 
air since. It was Gen. Joseph Lane, of Mexican and Oregon fame 
in after years. The house was composed mostly of new members, and 
was said to be the greenest ever convened in the State, myself included. 
We had, however, a few who would pass even at the present day. 
Gen. Stapp, Isaac Howk, Horace Bassett, John Dumont, Isaac 
Julian, Pinkney James, Gen. Burnett, William A. Bullock, Lucius 
H. Scott, Dennis Pennington, Benjamin V. Beckes, Dr. Sylvanius 
Everts, Nathaniel Hunt, and others. The session lasted six weeks, 
and perhaps no Legislature ever met and adjourned in the State, doing 
less harm. — There were a few measures, however, in which I took an 
active part, that may bear mentioning. The poll-tax system was first 
established, the exemption in favor of widows, of personal estate to 
the value of one hundred dollars, from the debts of deceased hus- 
bands ; and the act giving a representation to " the new purchase, " to 
strengthen the middle and northern parts of the State, in passing the 
law for the removal of the seat of government from Corydon to Indian- 
apolis. This latter act was warmly contested, debated weeks and finally 
passed by a very close vote. The first constitution provided that 
" Corydon in Harrison county, shall be the seat of government of the 
State of Indiana, until the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, 
and until removed by law." It further provided, " the General 



AN ELECTIONEERING OrEEATION. 77 

\ssembly may, within two years after their first meeting, and shall in 
the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five, and every other subsequent 
term of five years, cause an enumeration to be made, of all the white 
male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years ; the number of 
Representatives shall at the several periods of making such enumeration 
be fixed by the General Assembly, and apportioned among the several 
counties." The question was whether it was competent for the Leg- 
islature to take the census and make the apportionment at any inter- 
mediate time, or whether it could only be done at the expiration of 
every five years. We carried the bill in favor of the first construction, 
and the seat of government was removed years sooner than it would 
otherwise have been. AVe had little important business before us ; 
Gov. Hendricks was inaugurated, and Judge Parke elected to revise 
the laws. 



AN ELECTIONEERING OPERATION. 

An incident occurred in the election of Treasurer of State that may 
be instructive to candidates. Daniel C. Lane was the incumbent. — 
There was no tangible objection against him as an officer, but it was 
rumored that he could see a short rich man over the head of a tall 
poor man. His competitor was Samuel Merrill, then of Vevay, after- 
ward for years Treasurer of State, and President of the State Bank. 
The day for the election was not fixed. I was among the warm friends 
of Mr. Merrill. Our prospects for his election were very poor — 
chances as ten to one against us. Mr. Lane, as was the custom, 
began his course of entertainments, and, as his house was small, he only 
invited to his first dinner the Senators and the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, Gen. Washington Johnston,— -intending, no doubt, 
to feast the members of the House on some other evening before 
the election. 

Next morning the House met, and a few of us understanding each 
other passed around among the uninitiated, and soon had them in a per- 
fect state of excitement against Lane. The time had now come, and I 
introduced a resolution inviting the Senate to go into the election 
instanter. The resolution was reciprocated, and down came the Senate. 
The joint convention was immediately held, and Mr. Merrill was 
elected by a large majority, the Senators voting for Mr. Lane and the 
members of the House for 3Ir Merrill, who made the State a first-rate 
officer. The Legislature adjourned, and I returned home through the 
woods. This ended my legislative career in the State, as I was never 
afterward a candidate. 



78 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

A GREAT HYPOCRITE. 

My youngest brotlier, afterward Judge Septimus Smitli, was a stu- 
dent in my office at Connersville. On my return from Corydon, I 
learned that his beautiful strawberry-roan horse had been stolen from 
the stable in my absence. He advertised the animal in a number of 
papers and traveled through the country in search of him, but got no 
tidings of him until some six months afterward, when Jacob Reed 
happened to see the horse in a drove in North Carolina, knew him 
at sight, and learned from the owner of the drove that he had bought 
the horse at Urbana, Ohio, from a man from Connersville, and de- 
scribed Charles Donovan, a school-teacher and Methodist exhorter. 
Wc thought best, in consequence of the good character of Donovan 
to say nothing about it. My brother went to Urbana and got the 
horse. But the end was not yet. The Rev. James Conwell kept 
store at Somerset now Laurel, on Whitewater ; Donovan had ingra- 
tiated himself into the good graces of Mr. Conwell, who was a good, 
unsuspecting religious man, and an ardent Methodist preacher. 
Donovan would frequently attend the meetings of Mr. Conwell, was a 
fine singer and often closed the meetings. Mr. Conwell had a clerk, 
a respectable young man, by the name of Williams in the store, who 
suspected Donovan of taking money out of the drawer of the store, and 
named it to Mr. Conwell, in confidence. With some hesitation it was 
suggested by Mr. Conwell, that they would bore an augur-hole over 
the drawer, in the floor of the upper room, and the next time Donovan 
came to the store the clerk should leave some counted change in the 
drawer and step out, go up to the hole quietly, leaving Donovan in the 
store. The plan was adopted, Williams saw Donovan take the change 
out of the drawer and stated the fact to Conwell. I was the State's attor- 
ney at the time. About midnight the same night I was called up by Mr. 
Conwell and the facts stated. I recommended that another chance 
should be given to Donovan, with another witness at the hole, as I 
feared that Williams might be charged with taking the money, and 
putting the theft on Donovan, and as the character of Donovan was 
established, and Williams was but a young man, it might end in the 
discharge of Donovan and the ruin of Williams. Mr. Conwell, how- 
ever, urged the arrest of Donovan. I prepared the papers and Dono- 
van was arrested before morning, in his bed. He protested his 
innocence, charged Williams with the theft, gave bail for his appear- 
ance, and brought suit against Conwell and Williams for slander. 
Thus stood the case until within a few weeks before court, when 
Donovan was missing. His bail followed him to Cincinnati and found 
his name registered on a boat for New Orleans. The well-known 



ANECDOTE OF GOV. WHITCOMB. 79 

voice of Donovan was heard in the drinking-saloou, cursing and swear- 
ing, and, as the bail entered, he reeled against the side of the door and 
fell drunk upon the floor. He was brought back by his bail, and 
delivered up to the Sheriff and put in jail. Court came on. He was 
indicted, tried, convicted, and sent to the penitentiary two years. 
The actions of slander were dismissed, and Donovan confessed to my 
brother that he had stolen his horse and sold him in Urbana. 



ANECDOTE OF GOV. WHITCOMB. 

In the winter of 1823, as I was about to leave Indianapolis for home, 
James Whitcomb told me he was going to Ohio, and wished to travel 
with me. Of course I was glad to have company, as the path led 
through the woods, and there were but three houses between Indian- 
apolis and Whitewater. After an early breakfast we started, both 
riding good horses, intending to reach Dille's, on Blue River, near 
where Knightstown now stands. Some hours after night, to our much 
joy we saw the light at the cabin, rode up, and as we dismounted the 
sound of a fiddle saluted us. Entering the cabin, there sat before the 
fire a lame young man by the name of Amos Dille, with an old violin 
in his hand, scraping away, making any thing but music. He laid the 
violin on the bed, and started with our horses to the stable. As he 
closed the door, Mr. "Whitcomb took it up, soon put it in tune, and 
when Amos returned was playing light and beautiful airs. Amos 
took his seat by me, seemingly entranced, and as Mr. Whitcomb struck 
up "Hail Columbia, " he sprang to his feet. "If I had fifty dollars 
I would give it all for that fiddle ; I never heard such music before 
in my life." After playing several tunes Mr. Whitcomb laid the 
instrument on the bed. Amos seized it, carried it to the fire where 
he could see it, turned it over and over, examined every part, and 
sang out, " Mister, I never saw two fiddles so much alike as yours and 
mine." Gov. Whitcomb was one of the finest performers on the violin 
I ever heard. 



80 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Wednesday Morning, August 12, 1857. 

ELECTIONEERING. 

I HAVE sketched the most important trials that were had during 
my two years as circuit prosecuting attorney, which ended with 
the spring term of 1826, when I hecame a candidate for Congress 
and resigned. Amos Lane was appointed my successor. The most 
of the sketches that will be given are of after occurrences. 

My competitor for Congress in 1826, the Hon. John Test, was one 
of the first men in the State, had been on the court bench, was 
a fine lawyer, a good speaker, and had represented the district three 
full terms. The contest on my part looked at first almost hopeless. 
Stump speaking was just coming in fashion. The people met our 
appointments by thousands. The judge had his high character to 
aid him, and I brought to my aid a strong voice, reaching to the 
very extremes of the largest crowds. The judge went for the 
graduation of the public lands, and I went for home gifts to actual 
settlers. My position was the most acceptable to the masses. We 
met in Allenville, Switzerland county, on one occasion. The whole 
country was there. The judge was speaking, and for the first time 
introduced the new subject of railroads. He avowed himself in 
favor of them, and said he had voted for the Buffalo and New 
Orleans road, and then rising to the top of his voice, " I tell you, 
fellow-citizens, that in England they run the cars thirty miles an 
hour, and they will yet be run at a higher speed in America." This 
was enough. The crowd set up a loud laugh at the expense of the 
judge. An old fellow, standing by me, bawled out, " You ar6 crazy, 
or do you think we are all fools; a man could not live a moment at 
that speed." The day was mine. The judge had ruined his pros- 
pects by telling such an improbable story at that day. On another 
occasion the judge was speaking in favor of the tariff in the highest 
terms. The people knew but little about it, but what they had 
heard was decidedly against it ; few knew the meaning of the 
word, and fewer what it was like. One old fellow said he had 
never seen one, but he believed " it was hard on sheep." 



PERILS OF A CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN. 

There was fun in those days. We had no parties then, and 
there was some life in a contest — very different from after times, 
when the candidates had to be engrafted into the party stock, and 
drew all their life and strength from the party to which they belonged. 



PERILS OF A CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN. 81 

On one occasion in after years I was speaking at a battalion mus- 
ter in Ripley county, and liad spoken over two hours. I noticed 
an old man leaning against a tree in front of me. As I closed 
he roared out, " Mr. Smith you have made one of the best speeches 
I ever heard, I agree with all you have said. Will you answer me 
one question before you leave the stand." " Most certainly." " Will 
you vote for General Jackson ? " " No, sir, I shall vote for Henry Clay." 
" Then you can't get my vote." The question was between Jackson and 
Clay, and not between myself and competitor as to who should go 
to Congress, with the old man then. The contest grew warm, and 
more and more doubtful. My stock was rising, and with it my 
spirits. My district covered one-third of the State. 

I had not, as yet, visited the county of Allen, some hundred 
miles north of Randolph. There were no roads, nothing but Indian 
paths, to travel at that day through the wilderness. In the early 
part of May I turned the head of my pony north for Fort Wayne. 
The streams were high and the path for miles under water in 
places. I rode in that campaign a small brown Indian pony, a 
good swimmer, a fine pacer, and a fine traveler. The first day after 
I left the settlements at the Mississinewa, I reached the Indian 
station at Francis Godfrey's. The chief was from home, but one 
of his wives came out at an opening in the picketing, and pointed 
toward Fort Wayne ; the chief was there. She could not speak 
a word of English. I pointed to the stable, then to my horse, 
then to my mouth, then laid my head on my hands, shut my eyes, 
and commenced snoring. She seized the reins of the bridle ; I dis- 
mounted and passed through the pickets into the house. My 
faithful pony was fed. Night came on at length ; supper was 
announced, by motions ; corn bread, venison, and sassafras tea, a 
bear skin on the floor for a bed, and sound sleeping followed. Break- 
fast of the same over, and I was about starting alone, when there 
came up an Indian that could speak a little broken English. I 
agreed with him for a guide for two dollars for a day to get me over 
the Salamonia and the Wabash rivers. We were soon on our horses, 
and off went my guide at full speed on his pony, and was soon out 
of sight. I overtook him, however, at the Salamonia. In we went, 
he leading. The ponies swam beautifully ; and away we started 
for the Wabash. The path wound around the ridges until, the 
river came full in sight. It was high, clear over the bank, and 
the current very rapid. The sun was some three hours high, the 
day warm and not unpleasant. I had neglected to provide any food, 
or even a knife for defense. The moment we reached the river 
6 



82 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the Indian jumped down, peeled some bark from a liickory sapling, 
and spancelled the fore legs of the ponies. I sat down on the bank. 
The Indian was out of sight in a moment, in the woods, and I saw 
nothing of him for an hour, when he returned with the bark of a 
hickory tree, about twelve feet long and three feet in diameter. 
A fire was soon made. The bark was metamorphosed into a round- 
bottomed Indian canoe. The sun was about an hour high. The 
canoe was launched ; my saddle, saddle-bag, and blanket placed in 
one end, and I got into the other. With mj"^ weight the edges were 
about an inch above water. I took the paddle, and, by using the 
current, landed safely on the other shore. The Indian swam the 
horse over, and held up two fingers. I paid him the two dollars ; 
he started back, and I mounted the pony and striking the path 
went ofi" at half speed. It was after twilight, when I came to a 
large lake, directly in my way. Fearing to go in, I turned the 
pony and rode out into the woods, to the toj) of a beech tree that 
had been blown down some time before. Dismounting, I tied the 
pony to the brush of the tree, took ofi" the saddle-bags and blanket, 
and laid down, without any thing to eat, and very tired. In a few 
moments I heard the howling of wolves in every direction, some- 
times close to me. The last thing I heard, as I fell a sleep, was an 
old wolf barking some twenty feet from me. I slept soundly through 
the night, and when I waked the sun was full in my face. At 
dinner I was at the hotel table in Fort Wayne, with an excellent 
appetite, having eaten nothing from early breakfast the day before. 
I made a speech that day from the porch of the hotel, and returned 
directly home. The election came on, and I received just ten votes 
in the county of Allen, to reward me for my perilous trip, while my 
majority in the district was over fifteen hundred. 



A CHALLENGE. 

The day after the election I was crossing the street at Conners- 
ville, when I heard the sound of horns up Main street, and in a 
few minutes I" was surrounded by about fifty men on horseback, 
with Michael Spencer among them. I saw in a moment that they 
were political opponents, come to let me know that the vote of their 
townghip had gone against me. Spencer. — " How many votes do you 
think you got in our township ? " " None, if you had any sense." 
" What do you mean by that ? " " T mean that when I go to Congress, at 
least one-half of you will be in the penitentiary before I get back : nobody 
else can defend such men." Spencer. — " You shall account for that." 



A CHALLENGE. 83 

A day or two afterward Spencer called on me to defend liim 
against an indictment in the Fayette Circuit Court, for challenging 
a man to fight a duel ; by our laws at that time it was a penitentiary 
offense. I remarked, " Just as I told you." The trial came on at 
next term of the court, and Spencer was acquitted upon an " if.'" 
The challenge was, " If you will get a second and meet me to-morrow 
morning with pistols, I will meet you with my second and pistols.'" 
Judge Eggleston charged that it was not a challenge, but a mere 
conditional proposition that required an acceptance to give it the 
character at law of a challenge. 

In my next I may sketch the trip of Gen. Noble and myself, 
seventeen days on horseback, to Washington City in the fall of 1827, 
and take some notice of the House, and of some occurrences that 
took place during the session. 



84 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Thursday Morning, August 13. 1857. 

STATE ORGANIZATION AND DIVISION OF 
PARTIES. 

As I have already found that these Reminiscences can not be con- 
fined to trials alone, and give to them' the interest desirable, I have 
concluded to take a wider range, and sketch other interesting incidents, 
that the reader may look for as they appear. 

I came to Indiana in the spring of 1817. The political affairs of 
the State were then in the hands of three parties, or rather one party 
with three divisions — the Noble, Jennings and Hendricks divisions — 
which were all fully represented in the convention that formed the 
constitution of 1816. Gen. James Noble and Jonathan Jennings were 
delegates. Jennings was elected President and William Hendricks 
Secretary of the convention. It was evident to these leaders that per- 
sonal political conflicts must arise between them unless the proper 
arrangements were made to avoid them. It was then agreed between 
them to aid each other in making Noble United States Senator, Jen- 
nings Governor, and Hendricks Congressman. iVn apportionment was 
made in the constitution to suit all parties. It was provided, at the 
close of Section 20 of Article 3, " Nor shall any mfember of either 
branch of the General Assembly, during the term for which he is 
elected be eligible to any office, the appointment of which is vested 
in the General Assembly. Provided that nothing in this constitution 
shall be so construed to prevent any member of the first session of the 
General Assembly from accepting any office that is created by this 
Constitution, or the Constitution of the United States." There were 
three judges to be appointed for the Supreme Court. Each sub-divis- 
ion was entitled to one. Gen. Noble selected Jesse L. Holman, living 
on the beautiful hights of the Ohio river, above Aurora, a good law- 
yer and one of the most just and conscientious men I ever knew. Gov. 
Jennings selected John Johnson, a fine lawyer and an excellent man. 
He lived but a short time, and after his death, in the winter of 1822-3, 1 
named the county of Johnson for him in the Legislature, and not for 
Col. Richard M. Johnson, as some suppose. Gov. Hendricks named 
James Scott, of Clark county, a Pennsylvanian, one of the purest men 
in the State, a good scholar, and a fine lawyer. The opinions of no 
judge of our Supreme Court up to the present day, are I think entitled 
to stand higher with the profession than his. A strong common sense 
view of the case enabled him to select the grain of wheat from the stack 
of straw, and say, holding it up to the parties without discussing the 
chaff, '' It is my opinion that this is a grain of wheat." 



FIRST ELECTION OF OFFICERS, ETC. 8o 

FIRST ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 

The Constitution was ratified, the election held, and the Legislature 
met. Jonathan Jennings, was elected Governor ; William Hendricks 
to Congress, General Noble and Waller Taylor to the Senate of the 
United States ; Jesse L. Holman, John Johnson and James Scott, 
Supreme Judges. Judge Johnson lived but a short time, and Isaac 
Blackford, of Vincennes, a young lawyer, from New Jersey, a gradu- 
ate of Princeton, was appointed to the vacancy. Like Judge Story, 
he looked too young for that high judicial station, but, to say the least, 
he came fully up to the expectations of his friends, as his decisions 
and reports conclusively show. He is now one of the judges of the 
United States Court of Claims, sitting at Washington. The principal 
characteristic of the mind of judge Blackford, is caution. He never 
giiesses. He is emphatically a " book judge." Declamation with him is 
nothing, precedent and good authority, every thing. 



MONROE'S SECOND ELECTION-GENERAL NOBLE. 

The State organization and the distribution of offices went on swim- 
mingly, the chiefs changing hands as in a country dance. Hendricks 
left Congress, Jennings left the Executive Chair, and w^ent to Con- 
gress, and Hendricks was elected Governor ; Noble was re-elected to 
the Senate, Waller Taylor died. Gov. Hendricks resigned, was elec- 
ted to the United States Senate, over Judge Blackford, his competitor, 
by one vote ; James B. Ray, President of the Senate, became ex- officio 
Governor, Judge John Test was elected to Congress in the third dis- 
trict, Jonathan Jennings in the second, and Ratcliff Boone in the first. 
Thus stood political and judicial matters at the time the second elec- 
tion of Mr. Monroe came on before our Legislature. There was no 
opposition. The people knew nothing about it. The Legislature sit- 
ting at Corydon, appointed the electors. The first notice I had that 
there had been a Presidential election, was from an extract in our 
Connersville newspaper taken from the Corydon paper, giving the 
names of the electors, among which was Daniel J. Caswell, and the 
giving of the vote of the State for Jas. Monroe and Daniel D. Tom- 
kins, and yet as good and quiet an administration followed as any that 
is likely to be produced by our exciting elections at this day. Gen- 
eral Noble was, as the saying is, born for a leader. His person, his 
every act, look, and motion suited the populace. He was emphati- 
cally a self-made man — quick, ready, and always prepared. His taste 
was quite military, and the old settlers of Whitewater will not soon 
forget the General, in full uniform, mounted on " Wrangler " at the 



86 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

head of his division. He served two full terms in the Senate, died a 
Senator, comparatively a young man, and lies entombed in the Con- 
gressional Cemetery at Washington. 



GOV. JENNINGS. 

Governor Jennings, I also knew well. His great forte, like that of 
Martin Van Buren, was in managing the wires that controlled popular 
elections. Still, he was by no means destitute of talents. His messa- 
ges read well, and he made a useful business member of Congress. 
As a public speaker he was not admired, but on paper he was a very 
formidable competitor. The Governor has long since been gathered 
to his fathers. 

GOV. HENDRICKS. 

Governor Hendricks was my early friend ; gave me the first office I 
ever held in the State, and although I was elected over him, in 1836., 
to the Senate of the United States, we were personal friends till he 
died. The Governor, in person, was large and commanding ; his man- 
ners were very popular. He had a smile on his face and a warm shake 
of the hand for all he met. He was not of the very first order of 
talents, but made all up by his plain, practical, good sense. He never 
attempted to speak upon subjects he did not understand. He made a 
good Governor, and stood well as a Senator. He too, has left us, and 
gone to his reward, at an advanced age. 



JOHN TEST. 

Judge John Test, the father of Judge Charles H. Test, was one of 
the first circuit judges, and served four terms in Congress from his 
district. He was one of the best lawyers of the State. His great forte 
was in sympathetic and persuasive appeals to the jury, in which he 
was eminently successful. He stood deservedly high, both as a law- 
yer and statesman. The Jixdge wore a black suit, with his queue to 
his waist. He died at a good old age, honored and respected by all 
who knew him. 



GOV. RAY. 

James B. Eat, the successor of Governor Hendricks, was the young- 
est man that had ever occupied the chair, at the time of his election. 
In person, he was above the ordinary size, with a high forehead, rather 
projecting, and a long queue. He was a popular stump-speaker, was 



AMOS LANE, GOV. NOBLE, ETC. 87 

never beaten before tbe people for Governor, at one time beating Judge 
Blackford, at another Dr. Israel T. Canby and Harbin H. Moore. He 
was a zealous lawyer, but entered the political field before his forensic 
powers were fully developed. The Governor died comparatively a 
young man. 

AMOS LANE. 

Amos Lane was extensively known, both as a lawyer and a politi- 
cian. His person was tall and commanding, of the finest mold, his 
gestures easy and graceful, his enunciation distinct and deliberate. 
He was strong before both court and jury. He was at one time Speaker 
of the House of Representatives and afterward represented his district 
in Congress. Mr. Lane was the father of Geoi'ge W. Lane of Dear- 
born, and of Col. James H. Lane of Kansas. He died in Lawrence- 
burgh, in advanced age. 

GOV. NOBLE. 

Noah Noble succeeded Governor Ray, and served two full terms. 
He was brother to Gen. James Noble, and one of the most popular 
■men with the masses in the State. His person was tall and slim, his 
constitution delicate, his smile winning, his voice feeble, the squeeze 
of his hand irresistible. He spoke jilainly, and well, but made no 
pretense to eloquence. As Governor he was very popular ; his social 
entertainments will long be remembered. Gov. Noble died some years 
ago of consumption, in early life, and lies entombed in the cemetery at 
Indianapolis. 

GOV. Vi^ALLACE. 

David Wallace succeeded Gov. Noble for a single term. He was a 
West-Point graduate, a good lawyer, with a brilliant imagination, a 
clear, musical voice, and an eloquent flow of language. His person 
was fine, his eye piercing, his manner and gestures unsurpassed. He 
was in his early days one of the most eloquent speakers I have ever 
heard. The Governor is the father of William Wallace, of this city, 
and of Senator Lewis Wallace, of Montgomery, is still in full life, hold- 
ing the ofiice of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas at Indianapolis. 

I may possibly continue these sketches of persons, until I have 
touched all the Governors, and the subsequent Judges of the Supreme 
Court, with a glance at the bar ; but not yet. 



EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Friday Morning, August 14, 1857. 

A NEWMODE OF EFFECTING A RECONCILIATION. 

The middle of November, 1827, liad come. I returned from 
Indianapolis Saturday night, and the next Monday evening met 
General James Noble at Blair's Hotel in Hamilton, Ohio, on our 
way to Congress. We rode good walking horses, and at the end 
of the seventeenth day dismounted at the Indian Queen hotel at 
Washington, kept by Jesse Brown. There were no railroads across 
the mountains then, stages were " all the go," and traveling on horse- 
back fast going out of fashion. But the General stuck to the old 
mode all his life. The usual vai'lety of scenery and incidents 
occurred on the route, interesting to me then, but of too little 
importance to have a place here, until we came to the top of the Alle- 
ghany one morning, where we stopped to breakfast. Just as we 
were sitting down to the table, the stage drove up. I stepped out, 
and found Gov. Jennings sitting on the back seat, the only passenger. 
I was then full of fun and mischief, and being aware that Noble and 
Jennings were at sword's points, not having spoken together for years, 
I halloed out at the top of my voice, " General Noble, come out 
here ; here is a friend who wants to see you ! " Noble left the table, 
ran out to the stage, opened the door and thrust his head into the 
face of Gov. Jennings, who was leaning forward. " Good morning. 
Governor, give us your hand." " Good morning. General, I am 
happy to see you." The stage drove on, and we returned to the 
table. The General gave me an inquisitorial look, " Did you not 
know that I never speak to Governor Jennings?" But from that 
time forth these leading politicians became reconciled, and continued 
friendly while both lived. 



THE TWENTIETH CONGRESS. 

Eleven o'clock Monday morning had arrived. The Hall of the 
House of Representatives was filled with members, the old acquaint- 
ances shaking hands, and we young ones looking on. Our State 
was represented by Governor Jennings, Thomas H. Blake, and 
myself in the House, and General Noble and Governor Hendricks 
in the Senate. I had heard and read much of the distinguished men 
of the nation, and I was now about to see them for myself. I shall 
long remember the deep interest I felt when Mathew St. Clair Clark 
began to call the roll. Nor can I forget the impression made upon 
me, as these distinguished men walked forward in front of the 



THE TWENTIETH CONGKESS. 89 

Clerk's desk, to be qualified ; nor yet the appearance of Judge Story 
as te administered the oath to support the Constitution of the United 
States. The reader will see by the few names my space will allow 
me to give, that the House of Representatives of the Twentieth Con- 
gress has never been surpassed, if equalled by any other since the 
organization of the Government. 

I name, leaving the reader to supply the States that had the honor to 
elect them: John Randolph, Phillip P. Barbour, Andrew Stevenson, 
William C. Rives, William S. Archer, John Floyd, Charles Fenton 
Mercer, John S. Barbour, Alexander Smyth, James Buchanan, Richard 
Coulter, John Seargent, Andrew Stuart, Samuel D. Ingham, Samuel 
McKean, George Wolf, Joel B. Sutherland, Charles Miner, George 
Kreemer, Edward Everett, John Davis, Isaac C. Bates, John Reed, 
Tristram Burgess, Dutee J. Pearee, Silas Wright, Henry R. Storrs, 
Thomas J. Oakley, Gulian C. Verplanck, John W. Taylor, Churchill 
C. Cambreling, Ogden Hoffman, John C. Clark, Aaron Ward, Stephen 
Van Rensellaer, Selah R. Hobbie, Peleg Sprague, John Anderson, 
G-en. Ripley, Ichabod Bartlett, Rufus Mclntire, Benjamin Swift, 
Rollin C. Mallory, Ralph J. Ingersoll, David Plant, Dr. Condict. 
Dr. Swan, Joseph F. Randolph, George McDuffie, William Dray- 
ton, William D. Martin, James Hamilton, Jr., Lewis Williams, 
James K. Polk, John Bell, John Blair, Prior Lee. David Crock- 
ett, Edward Bates, John C. Wright, Joseph Vance, Elisha Whit- 
tlesey. James Findlay, Samuel F. Vinton, John Woods, John Sloan, 
Mordecai Bartley, William Creighton, William McLean, William 
Stansberry, Edward Livingston, Joseph Duncan, Richard Buck- 
ner, Charles A. Wickliff, Robert P. Letcher, General Thomas Metcalf, 
Governor Clark, Henry Daniel, Robert McHatton, Austin E. Wing, 
Joseph W. White, Wilson Lumpkins, Thomas P. Moore. 

But enough. Think it not strange that I should have looked at 
that day, upon such a body of men, with admiration, mingled with 
awe. They were mostly just entering vipon the verge of middle 
life, with enough of youthful blood coursing their veins to give them 
quick and rapid action, and enough of age to mature their judg- 
ments in debate. 

I wish my space would permit me to sketch some of the leaders, 
as I can yet see and hear them.. It was the last Congress under 
the administration of John Quincy Adams. Gen. Jackson's popu- 
larity had returned to the House a majority, and Andrew Steven- 
sou was elected Speaker over John W. Taylor. 



90 EAELY IXDIAI^A TRIALS. 

THE TARIFF DISCUSSION. 

The Tariff of 1828 was, tliat session, tlie prominent measure. It 
was debated long and ably. Two main ideas occupied the ablest 
speakers, — whether there was constitutional power to enact a protec- 
tive tariff, and whether duties should be imposed upon the ad valorem 
or the specific principle. There were others equally important, as 
incidental, — whether high duties or low duties, would raise the most 
revenue. Some insisted that the duties laid by the bill were so 
high that the overflowing treasury would introduce extravagance 
and prodigality on the part of the administration, while others con- 
tended that it was low duties that would produce that result. The 
wiser of the debaters held that the only way to keep down ' the 
anticipated treasury plethora, was to lay high duties on articles of 
extravagance, and increase the free list, so as to include the neces- 
saries of life. The Northern members were supporting the bill, the 
South opposing in mass, many Western members with them. Still it 
was likely to pass. Silas Wright and James Buchanan, leading 

Democrats, were warm in its support, I voted with them. A 

caucus of the opponents of the bill was held and next day a motion 
was made to increase the duty on molasses ten cents per gallon, 
being an increase of a hundred per cent, ad valorem. The object 
of the amendment was to choke off the Northern members, and 
indirectly to kill the bill. 



SCENE BETWEEN BURGESS, OF R. I., AND DAN- 
IEL, OF KY. 

The moment the amendment was announced by the chairman, in 
committee of the whole, Mr. Burgess, of R. I., arose and implored 
the mover to withdraw it. He showed its effects upon the trade 
between the Eastern States and the adjacent islands, in timber and 
return cargoes of molasses, which was the daily food of the poor. 
His speech was short and to the point. As he took his seat Henry 
Daniel, of Kentucky, sprang to his feet and roared out at the top 
of his voice, " Mr. Speaker, let the constituents of the gentleman 
from Rhode Island sop their bread only on one side in molasses, 
and they will pay the same duties they do now." Mr. Bartlett, of 
New Hampshire, remarked to me, " Now look out for Tristram, 
Harry will catch it." Mr. Burgess arose, with fire beaming from his 
countenance, and addressed the chair. " The relief proposed by the 
gentleman from Kentucky, is but adding insult to injury. Does not 
that gentleman know that established habit becomes second nature. 



m'duffie and bates. 91 

and that all laws are cruel and oppressive that strike at the innocent 
habits of the people? To illustrate, what would the gentleman 
think of me if I should offer an amendment that neither himself nor 
his constituents shall hereafter have more than a pint of whisky for 
breakfast instead of a quart? Does he not know that the disposition 
of all animals partakes, in a greater or less degree, of the food on 
which they are fed ? The horse is noble, kind and grateful ; he is fed 
on grain and grass. The bear (looking at Daniel, who was a heavy, 
short man, dressed in a blue coat, with a velvet collar) will eat hog 
and raw hominy. You may domesticate him, dress him in a blue 
coat with a velvet collar, and learn him to stand erect, and to imitate 
the human voice, as some showmen have done, but examine him 
closely, sir (looking at Daniel some seconds); you will discover he is 
the bear still. The gentleman told us, in' a speech some days ago, 
that his district produced large numbers of jackasses, hogs and 
mules. No stronger proof of the truth of his statements can be 
given than a look at its representative. I ask the gentleman to 
keep this extra duty off of molasses, and commence its use among 
his constituents, and as feeble as our hold upon life is, Mr. Chairman, 
a man may yet, before we die, be permitted to go to his grave with 
two eyes in his head in the gentleman's district." Daniel wilted 
under the sarcasm, and few members afterward felt disposed to arouse 
the eminent son of Rhode Island. 



M'DUFFIE AND BATES. 

GrEORGE McDuFPiE was chairman of the committee of Ways and 
Means. The bill making appropriations to remove the Indians was 
in Committee of the Whole. The previous question was confined 
to the House, and there was no way of closing the debate and of 
taking the bill out of committee but to sit it out till all the members 
got tired of speaking, or some one could carry a motion that the 
committee rise and report the bill. John Wood, of Ohio, had the 
floor, but was immediately put down by the coughing and rattling 
of spittoons in the neighborhood of Mr. McDuffie, when Edward 
Bates, of Missouri, then her sole representative, rose, and addressed 
the Chair. The noise commenced. "I see that the Chair has not the 
will to protect Missouri from insult in my person ; let the gentleman 
avow himself and I will protect myself, sir." McDufiie rose, bowed, and 
took his seat. " Is it the gentleman from South Carolina ? I will see 
that gentleman another day." The debate closed, and Mr. Bates in 
my presence wrote a challenge to Mr. McDuffie, handed it to William 



92 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

S. Archer wto was sitting near us, who stepped across the hall ; as he 
approached Mr. McDuffie pointed him to Mr. Hamilton as his friend. 
The matter was afterward arranged by Mr. McDuffie disavowing any 
intention of insulting Mr. Bates, having merely resorted to that 
means to get the bill out of committee. 

There were several other interesting incidents during that Congress, 
that I may on some other day take time to sketch. 



REV. HENEY WARD BEECHER. 93 



[Satdrday Morning, August 15, 1857. 

REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 

The organ liad been placed in the Second Presbyterian Church at 

Indianapolis. Sabbath evening had come. The church was brilliantly 

lighted up. The last bell was tolling when I entered the Church. 

The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was in the pulpit, Charles Beecher 

seated at the organ, and A. Gr. Willavd, John L. Ketchum, Lawrence 

M. Vance, Alexander H. Davidson, Dr Ackley, Master Albert Wil- 

lard, Mrs. Ackley, Mrs. Ketcham, Miss Graydon and Miss Merrill in 

the choir. The house was crowded. The Organ played ; the choir 

sang — 

The voice of free grace cries, — " Escape to the mountain ! " 
For Adam's lost race Christ hath opened a fountain; 
For sin and uncleanness, and every transgression, 
His blood flows most freely in streams of salvation. 



Hallelujah to the Lamb! he hath purchased our pardon, 
We'll praise him again, when we pass over Jordan. 

Ye saints that are wounded ! Oh ! flee to the Saviour, 
He calls you in mercy, — 'tis infinite favor, — 
Your sins are increasing, — " Escape to the mountain " — 
His blood can remove them — it flows from the fountain. 

0, Jesus ! ride onAvard, triumphantly, glorious. 
O'er sin, death and hell thou art more than victorious ; 
Thy name is the theme of the great congregation, 
While angels and saints raise the shout of salvation. 

With joy we shall stand, when escaped to the shore, 
With harps in our hands, we'll praise him the more. 
We'll range the sweet plains on the bank of the river. 
And sing of salvation for ever and ever. ' 

Mr. Beecher rose in prayer; he was deep, pathetic, and closed in 
tears. Gave out for the choir : 

Hark ! — ten thousand harps and voices 
Sound the note of praise above, 
Jesus reigns, and heaven rejoices — 
Jesus reigns, the God of love. 
See ! He sits on yonder throne, 
Jesus rules the earth alone. 

Jesus, hail ! whose glory brightens — 
All above, and gives it worth ; 
Lord of life ! thy smile enlightens. 
Cheers and charms thy saints on earth. 
When we tliink of love like thine, 
Lord! we own it love divine. 



94 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

King of glory! reign forever — 
Thine an everlasting crown ; 
Nothing from thy love shall sever 
Those "whom thou hast made thine own. 
Happy objects of thy grace 
Destined to behold thy face. 

Saviour hasten thine appearing; 
Bring — oh ! bring thy glorious day, 
When the awful summons hearing, 
Heaven and earth shall pass away. 
Then, with golden harps we'll sing — 
"Glory, glory to our King! " 

The music ceased ; the eyes of the congregation were fixed upon 
the youthful preacher as he arose and announced the text. " And I 
say unto you, that many shall come from the East and West, and 
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom 
of heaven." It was the evening sermon, and Mr. Beeeher made little 
use of his notes, but gave reins to his imagination. His mind took 
in the whole race of man, as included in the text. The discourse 
held the congregation over an hour and a half in deep feeling. The 
great powers of the orator were brought to their highest pitch. He 
closed — " Yes they shall come from the East and the West, from the 
North and the South, from every part of the globe where man ever 
lived, or died — of every color, nation, kingdom — of every sect, of 
every tongue, from every congregation, from every people, and shall 
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
heaven. If I should be there, and I trust that my great Master will 
vouchsafe me that glorious blessing, if I should prove faithful to the 
end, I shall expect to meet some of the misguided followers of the false 
prophet, Joe Smith, the Mormon, who had come up out of great tribula- 
tion with pure hearts and contrite spirits ; should I meet with one such I 
should feel like the mariner at sea, in a dark night, when his founder- 
ing vessel is tempest-tossed ; he casts his eye above and if he sees one 
twinkling star peering through the darkness, he hails it with a thousand 
times more joy than he would on a clear night the whole galaxy 
of the heavens overspread." The sermon closed and the congregation 
retired. 

Mr. Beeeher is below the medium size ; his complexion fair, his 
eyes prom.inent, his forehead large, his features fine, his voice strong 
•and musical, well-trained and completely under his control. His 
elocution is of the highest order, his command of the English lan- 
guage seems to be perfect, indeed he plays upon the language as a 
skillful performer does upon the keys of the piano. He is one of 
the finest mental philosophers of the age, while his mind is stored 



EEY. CHARLES WADSWORTH. 95 

with knowledge drawn from all possible sources, his imagination is 
brilliant. As a preacher, he is a landscape painter of Christianity. 
Mr. Beecher has no model. He is the original of himself. He 
is always new. He imitates no man and no man can imitate him. 
The great power of Mr. Beecher over his congregation consists mainly 
in the clearness of his mental vision, the range of his thoughts, and 
the deep interest he imparts to whatever he touches. He speaks as if 
conscious that he is telling the truth, and his audience believes he 
thinks so. Mr. Beecher is emphatically an off-hand man. His mind 
is quick and impulsive, and should he never again write a sermon for 
delivery he would lose none of his pulpit force. He was never 
intended for the straight-jacket, nor the jacket for him. He always 
makes the best use of his materials, and he has at command an endless 
variety. Mr. Beecher will always have a large audience, he holds his 
own congregation, and draws to his church the traveling public. The 
theater for his genius and talents was too circumscribed at Indianap- 
olis. The Plymouth Church at Brooklyn, seating its thousands, is 
filled to overflowing whenever he preaches. It may be safely said, 
that Henry Ward Beecher is this day among the most popular pulpit 
orators of the United States. 



REV. CHARLES WADSWORTH. 

While on a visit to my brother's in Philadelphia, I attended the 
Old-School Presbyterian Church in Arch street. The Rev. Charles 
^^adsworth, the pastor, preached. I found the house filled when 1 
got there. A deacon kindly gave me a seat in front of the pulpit. 
Mr. Wadsworth is a small, spare man, of dark complexion, good face, 
hair and eyes black, musical voice, but I thought rather careless of 
his gestures. His sermon was written, lying before him. He is 
near sighted, and his eyes were too much upon the manuscript for 
effiect. 

The organ played, and the choir sang the beautiful hymn — 

Rock of ages, cleft for me ! ^» 

Let me hide myself in thee, 

Let the Avater and the blood, 

From thy wounded side which flow'd, 

Be of sin the perfect cure ; 

Save me, Lord ! and make me pure. 

Should my tears forever flow, 
Should my zeal no languor know, 
This for sin could not atone, 
Thou must save, and thou alone : 
In my hand no price I bring; 
Simply to thy cross I cling. 



96 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

While I draw this fleeting breath, 
When mine eye-lids close in death, 
When I rise to worlds unknown, 
And behold thee on thy throne, 
Rock of ages cleft for me ! 
Let me hide myself in thee. 

The music was of high order, but I did not think it surpassed that 
of the choir of the Second Presbyterian Church at Indianapolis, in 
the days of Mr. Beecher. 

Mr. Wadsworth pronounced the text in a solemn voice : " For 
they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." 

I had heard much of Mr. Wadsworth as an eminent, learned 
divine. I expected much, and was not disappointed. He commenced 
low, but silence reigned. '■ Can a man violate the laws of nature with 
impunity ? Can he expose his body to the elements, at all times, with 
safety? Can he take fire in his hand without burning? Can he 
step from the steeple's top without falling ? Can he spend his days 
and nights in dissipation and feel well ? Can he violate the com- 
mandments of Grod and feel happy ? Let him try it, and he will find 
in this life, that he has sown the wind and shall reap the whirlwind. 
Think it not strange then, that we preach that those who sow the 
wind in time, shall reap the whirlwind in eternity." 



ITINERANT PREACHERS 97 

[Wednesday Mormxg, AtrousT 19, 1857. 

ITINERANT PREACHERS. 

I SHOULD be false to the history of Early Indiana were I to pass by 
in silence the itinerant Methodist preachers who contributed so much 
to the establishment of good order, quiet, intelligence, morality and 
religion among the first settlers, and without intending to give offense 
to others, I venture the remark, that early Indiana, nay, more, Indiana 
to-day, owes more to the itinerant Methodist preachers than to all 
other religious denominations combined. 

Their system carried their churches into every settlement, and where 
two or three were gathered together, there was a Methodist preacher 
or exhorter in the midst. They were at the bed-side of the dying man 
on their knees, and at the grave their voices were heard in songs of 
praise. Other denominations waited for the people to come up 
from the wilderness to worship, while the itinerant Methodist preacher 
mounted his horse, and sought out their cabins in the woods, held 
his meetings there, carrying the Gospel, and leaving the Bible and 
Hymn Book as he went. 

The woods of Indiana were not settled without much sickness, 
many deaths and great suffering among the people. Of course we were 
too sparsely settled, and our towns too small, to be the subjects of such 
awful epidemics as visited New Orleans in the year 1853, the last time 
the yellow-fever made its aj^pearance in that devoted city ; when the 
waters of the Ohio and Mississippi had almost forsaken their channels, 
when at intervals only there might be seen a solitary steamer, loaded 
to the guards, with passengers leaving the city, and slowly wending 
her way up the crooked channels of the rivers, leaving thousands of 
citizens behind to perish ; when the hvim of business ceased, and 
nothing was heard in the streets but the sound of the lonely hearse 
slowly and solemnly bearing to the grave the silent dead ; when the 
levees were deserted and Commerce had spread her sails for happier 
ports ; and when a Nation's sympathy mingled with her cries of 
woe. 

While we had none of these awful visitations, there were few 
families some members of which were not laid upon the bed of sickness 
and death. — Connersville was so sickly that I was advised by my friends 
to leave it and fly for my life. — Indianapolis was no better, indeed its 
reputation was still worse, and the whole country was in the hands of 
the physicians and nurses. 
7 



98 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

LORENZO DOW. 

In the year 1819 I was one of a congregatiou assembled in the woods 
Lack of Kising Sun, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lorenzo Dow. 
Time passed away, we had all become impatient when in the distance 
we saw him approaching at a rapid rate through the trees on his pacing 
pony. He rode up to the log ou which I was sitting, threw the reins 
over the neck of the pony and stepped upon the log, took off his hat, 
his hair parted in the middle of his head and flowing on either side to 
his shoulders, his beard resting on his breast. In a minute at the top 
of his voice he said : " ' Behold, I come quickly and my reward is with 
me.' My subject is repentance. We sing, ' while the lamp holds out 
to burn, the vilest sinner may return.' That idea has done much harm 
and should be received with many grains of allowance. There are 
cases where it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle than for a man to repent unto salvation. Let me illustrate : 
Do you suppose that the man among you who went out last fall to kill 
his deer and bear for winter meat, and instead killed his neighbor's 
hogs, salted them down and is now living on the meat, can repent 
while it is unpaid for ? I tell you nay. — Except he restores a just 
•compensation his attempt at repentance will be the basest hypocrisy. 
Except ye repent, truly ye shall all likewise perish." He preached 
some thirty minutes. Down he stepped, mounted his pony, and in a 
few minutes was moving on through the woods at a rapid pace to meet 
;another appointment. 



SKETCHES OF PREACHERS IN EARLY INDIANA. 

I MAY be excused for naming some of the itinerant Methodist 
'preachers of early times, to whom I allude in the commencement of 
i;his sketch — James Jones, Augustus Jocelyn, John P. Durbin, James 
Conwell, John Hardy, Aaron Wood, James Havens, Elijah Whitten, 
John Morrow, Thomas Silvey, John Strnnge, and Allen Wiley. I 
had the pleasure of frequently hearing all these eminent preachers. 
John Strange had a brilliant imagination, and was a splendid preacher. 
Sometimes I thought him a little too high in his thoughts for the 
audience he was addressing. He would talk of the " zigzag forked 
lightnings playing through the concave vaults of heaven, " and again 
of " the cherubim and flaming swords guarding the paradise of God." 
I loved to hear him. 

Mr. Jocelyn was, at times, one of the ablest sermonizers of the age. 
At others, he would lose the text, and forget his entire discourse. I 
saw him at one time at Centerville, standing silent before the congre- 



SKETCHES OF PREACHERS IN EARLY IXDIAXA. 99 

gation, liis eyes gazing at vacancy. " I am lost — the text and the 
subject have left me, " and down he sat. A hymn was sung, the meet- 
ing was closed, and the congi-egation retired. On one occasion he 
was preaching at Connersville ; I was sitting just before him. He 
seemed to preach long. I became uneasy about the fire in my office — 
I could not tell why. The moment he closed, I stepped out and saw 
the smoke issuing from the windows. I arrived barely in time to save 
the building. I told him why it was I left so abruptly. He said he 
noticed my uneasiness and closed the sermon sooner on my account. 

James Jones lived at Eising Sun. He was what might be called a 
good, sound old-fashioned preacher, who contributed his aid with all 
his power to the cause of morality and religion. I have heard him 
often, and was alwaysione of his attentive listeners. 

John Hardy and Thomas Silvey were of the class known as " local 
preachers, " though they traveled and preached up and down White- 
water at times. They preached directly at the heart, leaving doctrinal 
and controversial matters to others ; and yet I have often thought that 
they did quite as much good as many others of much higher preten- 
sions. 

Allen Wiley was a preacher of a diiferent cast. I have hoard him 
preach some of the most powerful sermons I ever listened to. He 
commenced slow, deliberate, and cautious, feeling his way to the hearts 
of his congregation until his feelings would take charge of his tongue, 
and then he threw his whole soul into the subject, and closed with 
such appeals to the congregation as left few dry eyes at the singing of 
the closing hymn. 

James Conwell was a zealous preacher, and at times I thought him 
strong. His elocution was not very fluent, but his strong common 
sense made him very acceptable to his congregations. He did much 
good as a co-worker in the cause of morality and religion. 

John Morrow was much of the order of Jas. Conwell. He was a 
good preacher. I had heard him often, and had but one fault with him ; 
he carried no watch, and sometimes, in his zeal, would forget the time 
of day. While I was a candidate for Congress, I met Father Morrow 
and several other Methodist preachers at Conwell's store, in Decatur 
county. They were on their way to Conference. Our horses were 
feeding, dinner not ready and we took a short walk to the spring, under 
the shade of some spreading elms. Father Morrow proposed that I 
should make a speech. The motion was seconded by all the preachers, 
and I addressed them for about two hours, with as much sound as if 
I had been speaking to thousands. At the close fither Morrow 
remarked that he liked the speech, but it was a little too long. " Ah, 



100 EARLY INDIANA TIUALS. 

fether Morrow, I thought it was my last chance to punish you a little 
for what I have suffered under your long sermons." The other preach- 
ers smiled, and I was told the remark was like seed sown on good ground. 

John P. Durbin was a young, ardent preacher, but as I may notice 
him again, I will pass him by and come to James Havens, the Napo- 
leon of the Methodist preachers of eastern Indiana. I knew him well. 
He seemed to be made for the very work in which he was engaged. He 
had a good person, a strong physical formation, expanded lungs, a 
clear and powerful voice, reaching to the verge of the camp ground, 
the eye of the eagle, and both a moral and personal courage that never 
quailed. His powers as a preacher were of a very high order. I never 
heard but one man that was like him in his meridian days, and that 
was father Newton, who visited this country years ago from England, 
as the delegate to the American conference. — The great characteristic 
of Mr. Havens as a preacher was his good common sense. He could 
distinguish his audience so as not to throw his pearls before swine. 
He could feed his babes with the '• milk of the Word,'' and hurl the 
terrors of the law at old sinners. He seemed to know that old blood 
never runs in young veins which so many preachers and presidents 
of colleges too often forget. Mr. Havens was one of the most powerful 
preachers I ever heard, and I have no hesitation in saying that the 
f^tate of Indiana owes him a heavier debt of gratitude, for the efforts of 
his long, and valuable life, to form society on the basis of morality, 
education and religion, than any other man, living or dead. 

Aaron Wood was young as a preacher when I knew him, but he was 
of high promise. He had a good mind, a happy elocution, and zeal 
without bounds. I thought the last time I heard him, in the Court 
House at Connersville, that his work would soon be over, as ho 
preached with all his power until he was exhausted and fell into the 
arms of a brother. The last time I saw him, however, he was in good 
health, with a green old age upon him. 

Elijah Whitten was one of the most energetic and ardent preachers 
that ever traveled the Whitewater country. He was strong in doctrine, 
but I thought his great forte was in exhortation. No man I ever 
heard could bring more mourners before the altar, than he could. 
He was highly respected as a preacher, and I have no doubt did great 
good in his day. 

I have now briefly sketched some of our pioneer itinerant Methodist 
preachers. It is intended to be the best porti-ait I can draw, but still, 
no doubt, their relatives and friends may be able to discover many 
defects which I have overlooked in my sketch. I hope, however, that 
the general physiognomy of each may be recognized. 



SCENE BETWEEN BURGESS AND m'bUFEIE. 101 



[Thursuat Morning, August 20, 1857. 

SCENE BETWEEN BURGESS AND M'DUFFIE. 

The House of Ptepresentatives had been in session but a few days 
after the appointment of the standing committees, when Mr. Mc Duffie, 
chairman of Ways and jMeans, made his report, fully sustaining the 
free-trade doctrines of the South, and repudifiting protection in all its 
phases. The report was read and Mr. Burgess arose and sarcastically 
remarked — " I am glad the chairman has taken his cue from the Bos- 
ton free-trade report," and sat down. Mr. Mc Duffie sprang to his 
feet. " If the gentleman charges me with taking my report from the 
Boston free-trade report, I pronounce it false, and call upon the gentle- 
man to take back what he has said." The excitement in the House was 
intense, when Mr. Burgess was seen rising on the opposite side of the 
hall, his bald head, high forehead, and long hooked nose giving prom- 
inence to his appearance. The House was as silent as midnight, and 
all eyes were turned upon the old man. I can yet see him and hear 
his voice. He began in the most subdued manner, in a low tone. 
" Mr. Speaker, I rise to take back every word I said about the report 
of the Committee of Ways and IMeans. The chairman says it is false 
that he took his report from the Boston free-trade report. He says 
he is the author and he is an honorable man. Now a word as to 
myself. I beg to assure the House that I was induced to make the 
statement by facts before my eyes that I thought at the time war- 
ranted the charge ; but the gentleman says it is all false, and he is an 
honorable man. The Boston free-trade report was published and sent 
to the Members of Congress weeks before the session. I read page 
after page of the report of the Committee and find it word for word 
with the Boston report. I send to the Clerk these reports and ask 
him to read from the marked pages." The Clerk read aloud from the 
two, alike in word and letter. As he read the head of Mc Duffie sank 
to his breast. The Clerk ceased. Mr. Burgess raised his voice to its 
highest pitch, " I take it all back Mr. Speaker, the chairman says it 
is folse and he is an honorable man," and took his seat amid applause 
from the galleries, and deep sensation in the House. Mc Duffie made 
no reply and the Speaker proceeded to the business on his table. 



GENERAL NOBLE AND MR. CALHOUN. 

A FEW days after, I crossed the rotunda and entered the Senate 
Chamber. Mr. Calhoun was in the chair and General Noble had the 
floor. The subject seemed to be of a personal character and the Gen. 



102 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

was alluding to tlie relation that existed between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. 
Van Buren and their standing with Gen. Jackson. As I first caught 
the remark of Gen. Noble, " I tell you Mr. President the ' little Magi- 
cian ' will spoil your dish with the old hero, he is as cunning as a ser- 
pent and as harmless as a dove." " The Senator will confine himself 
to the subject." " "Which subject ? " " The one before the Senate." 
" I am trying to do so. I see but one subject before the Senate, the 
other is at the White House." " The Senator will take his seat." " As 
I was saying, the little magician — " '^ The Senator was directed to 
take his seat." '• So I did, but the Chair did not expect me to sit there 
the balance of the session." I have not sketched this scene merely 
to show the sensitiveness of Mr. Calhoun at that time on the question 
touched by Gen. Noble, nor to show the ready wit and tact of the 
General, but to record the fact that it was early known in political 
circles that Mr. Van Buren was winning his way to a position in the 
regards of Gen. Jackson, destructive of the political relations between 
the General and Mr. Calhoun. The breach between these great leaders, 
as is known, became wider and wider, until the President's proclama- 
tion and Force bill, directed at Mr. Calhoun and the Southern Nulli- 
fiers, was published and widely circulated. Gen. Jackson became 
greatly excited, and fixed his eye upon Mr. Calhoun with a determina- 
tion to bring the whole force of the Government upon South Carolina, 
and Mr. Calhoun, as their leader, at the commission of the first overt 
act. James K. Polk told me that he was the first person, one rainy 
morning, that entered the audience-room of Gen. Jackson. " I 
found the General up, early as it was, walking the room, evidently 
under some excitement. ' Good morning. Col.,' said he, ' any overt 
acts of Mr. Calhoun yet? ' " It is not my purpose here, to go further 
in this matter : that belongs to Mr. Benton's " Thirty Years," or the 
historian of the times. These are only intendeii to be sketches. 



EXCITING SCENES IN THE HOUSE. 

In the progress of the session there arose a most exciting and inter- 
esting personal debate between John Randolph, John C. Wright, 
Alexander Smyth, Samuel D. Ingram and James Hamilton, Jr., in 
which George Kreemer was at last involved. The powers of John 
Bandolph are widely known, and need no indorsement by me. The 
other gentlemen were not entirely unknown to fame. George Kree- 
mer had made himself famous as the author of the Card charging Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Clay with a bargain that Mr. Clay should vote for Mr. 
Adams for President, in consideration of which Mr. Adams should 



EXCITING SCENES IN THE HOUSE. 103 

appoint Mr. Clay, Secretary of State, an event the prognostication of 
which was like predicting, as the sun sets behind the western hills, 
that he will rise in the morning in the east. It was like the guess of 
another wise prognosticator, that Martin Van Bureu would support 
Gen. Jackson after he left Mr. Crawford, and that the General would 
appoint him Secretary of State. These appointments grew out of the 
nature and fitness of things, and not out of a corrupt bargain, as calum- 
niators charged, and yet the charge stuck to Henry Clay through his 
whole life and is still like a poisonous miasma hovering over his tomb. 
The debate had lasted days, when John C. Wright arose to reply ; he 
had already placed himself at the very head of the House as a cool, 
collected, pointed, sarcastic debater ; nothing could excite him or throw 
him off his balance. As he arose I observed Mr. Randolph rise and 
walk down the main isle toward the door. Mr. Wright, in a loud voice, 
" I have a word for the gentleman from Virginia, the same gentleman 
I now see retreating from the hall of the House." Mr. Randolph, turn- 
ing and walking back to his seat, with his shrill voice, '• I am not 
retreating, I am not retreating." " No, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman 
is advancing, I hope he will remain with us, I have much to say to 
him to day." In the course of his remarks he was very severe, so 
much so at times as to bring down the hammer of the Speaker. While 
he was upon Mr. Randolph, Gen. Hamilton, of South Carolina, who 
was one of the worshipers of Mr. Randolph, sprang to his feet and at 
the top of his voice, under great excitement, " The most infernal tongue 
that was ever placed in a man's head, and wholly irresponsible ; chal- 
lenge him, and he will swear he can't see the length of his arm." This 
idea grew out of the answer of Mr. Wright to the challenge of Romu- 
lus M. Saunders — "I have received your challenge, but can not accept 
it ; owing to the imperfection of ray vision I could not tell your honor 
from a sheep, ten steps." The moment Mr. Wright took his seat, 
George Kreemer rose, and with a voice like a newly-weaned mule colt, 
" The gentleman reminds me of an old hen I have at home, that is 
always cackling and never lays an egg." As flat as this was, there 
was, evidently by preconcert, a roar of laughter over the House for the 
moment. Mr. Wright rose in an instant. " I rise, Mr. Speaker, to a 
point of order. I wish to learn from the Chair whether it would be in 
order to read the record of an indictment for perjury which I hold in 
my hand, against one George Kreemer?" The Speaker, much excited 
— " Certainly not, certainly not." " I only asked for information, I 
have no disposition to violate the rules of the House." The excite- 
ment had now become intense. The House adjourned. Mr. Wright 
and Mr. Vaughan, the British Minister, started down the Avenue arm 



104 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS, 

ill arm; wlien near Third street some one pushed them off the pave- 
ment into the gutter. Mr. Vaughan always went well armed, and 
turning his eye to Mr. Wright, " Who was that? " " Never mind it; 
he is an aggrieved member of Congress." The moment the House 
met the next morning Mr. Kreemer rose to a matter personal to him- 
self, stated the facts connected with the prosecution against him, showed 
that he was acquitted, and had been twice elected to Congress from 
his district afterward. The matter was passed by, and the House 
proceeded to business. 

I may spend a day of leisure in the Supreme Court of the United 
States, with my next sketch. 



COL. CROCKETT, ETC. 105 

[Friday Morning, August 27, 1857. 

COL. CROCKETT. 

There has been much said and written of Col. David Crockett, 
who was a member of the twentieth Congress. He has been repre- 
sented as an unlettered, uncouth, and ignorant man — a mere back- 
woods buffoon. I knew the Colonel well. He was a large, muscular 
man, with great bodily strength, and as brave a man as ever lived. 
He was comparatively without education, it is true, but his strong 
common sense gave him an efficiency greater than many of the higher 
class of members could boast. The Colonel had a newspaper con- 
troversy with his colleague. Col. Prior Lee, that became very bitter, 
and I believe, ended in a challenge on the part of Mr. Lee. But no 
duel followed, as Col. Crockett told me he was on principle opposed 
to settling controversies in that way. The gallant Colonel and his 
comrades afterward fell, covered with wounds, overpowered by superior 
numbers, at the battle or massacre of the Alamo, by the Mexicans 
under Santa Anna, while bravely fighting for the independence of 
Texas. 



NORTH CAROLINA INTELLIGENCE. 

There arose a personal debate during the session, between Judge 
Dorsey, of Maryland, and Samuel P. Carson, of North Carolina, 
which became highly interesting to the House, as it was carried on 
with the utmost good humor on both sides. It was evident, however, 
that Judge Dorsey had decidedly the advantage of his North Carolina 
competitor. The debate ultimately turned upon the comparative 
intelligence of the constituents of these gentlemen. Mr. Carson 
had charged the people of the eastern shore of Maryland with igno 
ranee of the history of the country, owing to their inability to read 
or write, and closed with a most ludicrous account of the subserviency 
of the Marylanders to the supposed great men of the country. The 
good humor of the House seemed to be on the side of North Carolina, 
when Judge Dorsey rose to reply, his face covered with fun. John 
Leeds Kerr, afterward United States Senator, whispered in my ear, 
" Dorsey can say funny things." I give a sketch of his speech from 
recollection. " The gentleman says my constituents are ignorant and 
illiterate ; I will not retort upon those who sent him here, but relate 
a few facts and leave the House to judge between us. Dates are im- 
portant. The late war was declared in 1812, and the British army 
ingloriously burned the capitol in 1814, to the lasting disgrace of that 



106 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

nation. The whole scene was immediately published in the National 
Intelligencer, and copied into every paper in the United States. The 
war was over and peace restored by the treaty of Ghent. Just ten 
years after the burning of the Capitol, my business took me into the 
gentleman's district. I was approaching the principal town, when I 
heard the sound of a fife and drum emerging from a yellow-pine 
woods near the town, where they were making tar and turpentine. I 
saw before me the weaving plume and marching, with quick step, of a 
regiment of men, the stars and stripes borne aloft, with the motto 
' North Carolina now and forever,' in large letters. I rode directly 
up to the principal hotel, kept by a landlord that evidently lived well, 
and knew how to entertain his guests if he was pleased with their 
standing. The moment I was seated on the porch he addressed me. 
' Have you heard the news ? ' ' What news ? ' ' Why the British 
have burned the Capitol and our army is moving forward as you see to 
meet the enemy.' 'When did you get the news?' 'We got it 
last night abut seven o'clock. That you may understand how this 
happened — just before the last war we held a great public meeting to 
give information to the people. It was found that there was but one 
man in the county that could read. He was elected county reader. 
We had no newspaper. We then voted to take the National Intelligen- 
cer, and that every Saturday afternoon the paper should be publicly 
read, beginning at the first page and reading it regularly through, 
advertisements and all ; since then our reader has kept constantly at 
it every Saturday afternoon. Last night he read the burning of the 
Capitol by the British. We at once flew to arms. The old Revolution- 
ary spirit is completely aroused.' Dinner was announced and I took 
my seat at the head of the table, when out sprang my landlord and in 
a moment announced that the President of the United States was 
approaching in a coach and four with out-riders, and sure enough up 
drove the coach with four splendid grays, and out-riders in full livery. 
The distinguished personage stepped from the coach, and was bowed 
into the parJor by my landlord, hat in hand. Curiosity led me to 
place one ear to the opening. The landlord bowing to the floor — 
' The President of the United States, I presume.' ' Not exactly.' 
' The Secretary of State ? ' 'Not exactly.' ' The Secretary of War ? ' 
' Not exactly.' ' The Secretary of the Navy ? ' ' Not exactly.' 
< The Governor of North Carolina ? ' < Not exactly.' ' Joseph Gales, 
the editor of the National Intelligencer ? ' ' Not exactly.' Then 
raising his voice and stamping his foot angrily on the floor, ' Who 
in the thunder are you?' 'I am a merchant tailor from Wash- 
ington City, and have come here to collect some bills.' ' You 



CORWIX AND JENNIFEE. 107 

can pass on, I have no room for you.' " The Judge closed amid thun- 
ders of applause, his triumph was complete. Mr. Carson laughed 
heartily, and the matter ended in the best of personal feelings. 



CORWIN AND JENNIFER. 

The above reminiscence induces me here, lest I forget it, to sketch 
a somewhat similar contest between Daniel Jennifer, of the eastern 
shore of Maryland, and Thomas Corwin of Ohio, in after years, in 
which the Marylander met an opponent of different metal and came 
off second best. It was at a social party. All was fun and hilarity. 
Mr. Jennifer was a man of decided talents ; was many years a repre- 
sentative in Congress from his district, and was ultimately sent abroad 
by the Government as a first-class minister plenipotentiary. He was 
full of wit and sarcasm and used them without mercy when an oppor- 
tunity offered. That evening he was unusually severe. At length he 
singled out Mr. Corwin and the State of Ohio for his remarks, con- 
trasting Maryland and its intelligence, with Ohio and her ignorance, 
not forgetting the fine oysters of the Eastern Shore and the " canvas 
backs " of the Chesapeake. When the opportunity offered, Gov. Cor- 
win remarked that he had no speech to make but he would relate a 
circumstance that occurred some years ago in the District Court of 
the United States of Ohio, at Columbus. A Revolutionary soldier 
made application to the court for pension papers, and introduced an 
old man as his witness to prove the services. The witness testified 
that the services were performed, that he served in the same company 
in the same regiment in the Maryland line. The proof seemed com- 
plete. The judge was satisfied. The certificate was about to be 
ordered, when the judge asked the witness how old he was. " I am 
just thirty-five years old." "What do you say?" "I am just 
thirty-five years old." "And you swear that you served in the 
Maryland line in the Revolutionary War ? " " I do." " Marshall, take 
the witness into custody ; District Attorney, prefer a bill of indictment 
against the witness for perjury in open court." " Stop, Judge, don't 
be too fast, let me explain." " There can be no explanation, take him 
to jail." " But, Judge, just hold a moment, I can explain to your 
satisfaction if you will let me." " What have you to say?" " I was 
born and lived on the eastern shore of Maryland until I was forty 
years of age ; I lived so poor, and it was so hard to get along there, 
that I never count them forty years at all. I came to the State of 
Ohio thirty-five years ago ; I have lived so well, and it has been so 
easy to make a living since, that I am willing to account for the 



108 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

thirty-five years that I have lived in Ohio. Is not this exphuiation 
satisfactory, Judge?" "Perfectly. The prisoner is discharged." 
All eyes were upon Mr. Jennifer, who looked as if he was satisfied 
too, with the reply of the Governor. 



FIRST SPEECH IN CONGRESS. 

For many years one of the most important subjects for Indiana had 
been the construction of the Cumberland road, starting at Cumberland 
in Maryland, and running west through Wheeling, Columbus, Indian- 
apolis and Springfield, Illinois, to St. Louis, its terminus. Congress 
dealt out appropriations with a sparing hand annually, so as barely to 
keep the work alive, but not sufficient to jn-osecute it vigorously. The 
main business of the Indiana delegation was to secure the annual 
appropriation. Governor Jennings being the oldest member fiom the 
State, was looked to by Col. Blake and myself to lead in support of the 
Bill, and in reply to the opposition. The bill apportioning $100, 000 
to the work, had been introduced and referred to the committee 
of the whole. The House went into committee, the bill was called up, 
Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, one of the strongest men in the House, 
rose and went into a long constitutional argument to prove that the 
general government had no power to make appropriations to construct 
the work. " I am in favor of a strict construction of the Constitution ; 
I contend that Congress can do no act not eocjiressly authorized by the 
letter of the Constitution." His speech was able, and we greatly feared 
its eflfect upon our favorite measure. My colleagues were not disposed 
to speak ; I had not spoken, I felt much reluctance to speaking, but 
duty seemed to require it. I got the floor for next day. The com- 
mittee arose, and the House adjourned. I was in for my first speech 
in Congress. I passed a sleepless night. I concluded to back out. 
By daylight I was up walking the pavement before my boarding-house, 
when the newsboy handed me the National Intelligencer, wet from 
the press. I opened the paper, glanced over the congressional pro- 
ceedings, looked under the editorial head, when oh ! horror of horroi's ! 
there it was, " The Hon. Oliver H. Smith will address the committee 
to-day, in reply to the Hon. Philip P. Barbour, on constitutional 
powers." Here I was ; there was no backing out without disgrace. 
I could eat no breakfost. The hour arrived. The House was crowded. 
Mr. Barbour was seated before me. My friends were around me to 
give me coui'age. I grew more bold as I advanced, and never to 
this day did I feel when I closed a two hours' speech, that I had done 
myself more justice. The bill was passed by a large majority. 



THE EEY. GEORGE G. COOKMAN. 109 



[Saturpat Morning, August 22, 1857. 

THE REV. GEORGE G. COOKMAN. 

It was Sabbath morning. The last of the city church-bells was ring- 
ing as I left my boarding-house on Capitol Hill, at Washington city, 
for Wesley Chapel. It was quarterly meeting. The preacher had 
closed his sermon, when there arose at the desk, a slender, spare man, 
about five feet eight, dark comjilexion, black hair falling carelessly 
over his high forehead, lean bony face, wide mouth, round-breasted 
black coat, with velvet fiilling collar, black vest and pantaloons. Addres- 
sing the congregation he said, — ''We desire to take up a small collec- 
tion for the relief of destitute, worn-out Methodist preachers and their 
families. We appeal to-day to the hearts of the congregation," and 
took his seat. A large collection followed. I whispered to Patrick 
CI. Good, of Ohio, who sat by me, " Who is that?" " Don't you know 
him ? It is George G. Cookman." The next Sabbath I was at the 
chapel again. Mr. Cookman preached. I returned satisfied that he 
was no ordinary man. The election for Chaplain of the Senate came 
on a few days after, and without the knowledge of Mr. Cookman, I 
privately suggested his name to the Senators around me. The most 
of them had heard him preach. He was elected Chaplain by a decided 
vote over the Rev. Henry Slicer, against whom there was not the least 
objection ; but we wanted to bring Mr. Cookman more prominently 
before the public. The next Sabbath he preached his first sermon iu 
the hall of the House, to a very large congregation, from the text " The 
sword -of the Lord and of Gideon." He made a profound impression 
on his hearers that day, which seemed to increase with every succeed- 
ing sermon. 

It is not my purpose to sketch the many sermons of Mr. Cookman 
during the time he was chaplain of the Senate, the most of which I 
heard. He was a clear, distinct, and powerful preacher. The remark- 
able cleai-ness of his mental vision enabled him to see and describe 
whatever he touched so as almost to make Paul, Silas, Peter, Mark, 
and John stand before you as he named them. His tone of voice, as 
he warmed with his subject, and the tear stealing down his cheek, 
were irresistible. As a pulpit orator, take him all in all, he had few 
equals, and no superiors, that I ever heard. There was no place for a 
choir where Cookman sang. His voice was melody itself. I heard 
him in the Senate Chamber on the funeral occasion of Senator Betts, 
of Connecticut. The Chamber was crowded. The President, Depart- 
ments, foreign Ministers, Senators and Representatives were there. I 
distinctly recollect one of his figures of speech. " As the human 



110 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

family come upon the great stage of life, they find at every fork of 
the road the finger-board distinctly pointing to the grave — to the 
grave ! There is no other road to travel from infancy to old age and 
death but the road that leads to the grave." There was not a dry eye 
in the Chamber when he closed his sermon of one hour, and sang alone 
the first verse of the hymn — 

And must this body die? — 

This mortal frame decay ? 
And must these active limbs of mine 

Lie mouldering in the clay ? 

God my Redeemer, lives, 

And often from the skies 
Looks down and watches all my dust, — 

Till he shall bid it rise. 

Arrayed in glorious grace, 

Shall these vile bodies shine; 
And every shape, and every face, 

Look heavenly and divine. 

These lively hopes we owe 

To Jesus' dying love; 
We would adore his grace below, 

And sing his power above. 

Dear Lord ! accept the praise 

Of these our humble songs ; 
Till tunes of nobler sound we raise, 

AVith our immortal tongues. 

The session of Congress was about to close upon the administration 
of Mr. Van Buren. The inauguration af (ren. Harrison was soon to 
take place. Mr. Cookman had all his arrangements made to visit 
England on the steamer President. The first dispatch from the new 
administration was to be confided to his charge. The next Sabbath 
he was to take leave of the Members of Congress in his farewell sermon. 
The day came. An hour before the usual time the crowd was seen 
filling the pavements of the Avenue, and pressing up the hill to Eepre- 
sentative Hall, which was soon filled to overfiowing, and hundreds 
unable to get seats went away disappointed. I obtained a seat early 
in front of the clerk's desk. John Quincy Adams sat in the Speaker's 
chair, facing Mr. Cookman. The whole space on the rostrum and 
steps was filled with Senators and Representatives. The moment had 
come. Mr. Cookman, evidently much affected, kneeled in a thrilling 
prayer, and rose with his eyes blinded with tears. His voice faltered 
with suppressed emotions, as he gave out the hymn — 

When marshalled on the nightly plain. 

The glittering host bestud the sky; 
One star alone, of all the train, 

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye. 



THE EEV. GEOKGE G. COOKMAN. Ill 

Hark ! hark ! — to God the chorus breaks, 

From every host, from every gem ; 
But one alone the Savior speaks, — 

It is the Star of Bethlehem. 

Once on the raging seas I rode, 
The storm was loud, the night was dark, — 

The ocean yawned — and rudely blowed 
The wind that tossed my foundering bark. 

Deep horror then my vitals froze, 

Death-struck, I ceased tlie tide to stem; — 

When suddenly a star arose, — 
It was the star of Bethlehem. 

It was my guide, my light, my all ; 

It bade my dark forebodings cease ; 
And through the storm, and danger's thrall, 

It led me to the port of peace. 

Now safely moored — my perils o'er, 

I'll sing, first in night's diadem. 
For ever and for evermore. 

The Star— the Star of Bethlehem ! 

The hymn was sung by Mr. Cookman alone. I can yet in imagi- 
nation hear his voice, as it filled the large hall, and the last sounds, 
with their echoes, died away in the dome. 

" And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from 
whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was no place 
for them. 

" And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the 
books wei'e opened : and another book was opened, which is the hook 
of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were 
written in the books, according to their works." 

Mr. Cookman was more affected when he gave us the text, than I 
had ever seen him before. He several times passed his handkerchief 
over his eyes before he began. The first sentences are fresh in my 
recollection. " When Massillon, one of the greatest divines that France 
ever knew, was called to preach the funeral sermon of the departed 
Monarch in the Cathedral at Paris, before the reio-nins: Kins, the 
royal family, the chambers, and the grandees of France, he took with 
him to the sacred desk a little golden urn, containing a lock of hair 
of the late King. The immense congregation was seated, and the 
silence of death reigned. Massillon arose, holding the little urn in 
his fingers, his hand resting upon the sacred cushion. All eyes were 
intently fixed upon him. Moments, minutes passed ; Massillon stood 
motionless, pale as a statue ; ihe feeling became intense ; many believed 
he was struck dumb before the august assembly ; many sighed and 



112 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

groaned aloud ; many eyes were suffused with tears, when the hand 
of Massillon was seen slowly raising the little golden urn, his eyes 
fixed upon the King, as the hand was returned to the sacred cushion 
the loud and solemn voice of Massillon was heard in every part of 
the Cathedral, '■ Gud alone is great!' So I say to you, to-day, my 
beloved hearers, there is no human greatness, ' God alone Is great.' " 
The subject was the Day of Judgment. I had heard it preached before 
many times, but never as I heard it then. The immense congregation 
was held almost breathless with the most beautiful, sublime and power- 
ful sermon I ever heard. He spoke of the final separation in the 
great day of judgment, and fancied the angel of the Lord locking the 
door that opened to the bottomless pit, stepping upon the ramparts, 
letting f\ill the key into the abyss below, and dropping the last tear 
over fallen and condemned man. He closed, " I go to the land of my 
birth, to press once more to my heart my aged mother and drop a tear 
on the grave of my sainted ftither. Farewell, farewell." And he sank 
overpowered to his seat, while the whole congregation responded with 
sympathizing tears. 

General Harrison had been inaugurated. The dispatches for the 
British Government were signed by Mr. Webster and delivered to Mr. 
Cookman. He took leave of his friends at Washington, and left for 
New York. As we parted his last words were, " May heaven bless 
you, Mr. Smith : if ever I return you shall see me in the West.'' 

A few days afterward there was seen passing Governor's Island the 
splendid new steamer " President," on her outward trip to Liverpool, 
with Mr. Cookman, Tyrone Powers, and a long list of other distin- 
""uished passengers on board. The flying steamer had left the light- 
house far behind and moved gallantly on toward the open Atlantic, 
with prospects of as speedy and safe a voyage as any vessel that ever 
crossed the Ocean. Night was coming on. The clouds in the heav- 
ens portended a storm. The winds blew and howled a dreadful hurri- 
cane. The ill-fated vessel was seen late in the evening, struggling 
with fate — now lying in the trough of the sea, now on the top of the 
mountain wave, now upon her side, and again plunging, as it were, 
into the abyss below. 

" The storm was loud, the night was dark, 

The Ocean yawned, and rudely blowed 
The wind that tossed my foundering bark." 

Morning came. The sun rose on an open sea. — The '• President,' 
with all on board, had gone down, and was never heard of more. — ■ 
Thus perished, ere he had reached the meridian of life, one of the 
eminent divines of our country. 



citizens' meeting at masonic hall. 113 



[Wednesday Morning, August 2G, 1857. 

CITIZENS' MEETING AT MASONIC HALL. 

On Monday evening Masonic Hall was filled with our enterprising 
prominent citizens to hear the address of the Hon. 0. H. Smith, of* 
which public notice had been given. James Blake, Esq., was called, 
to the chair. Mr. Smith being loudly called for, came forward and 
took the stand. He said that he had been very unwell through the 
day, and under other circumstances would not attempt to speak ; but 
his friends had come out to hear him, and he could not think of dis- 
appointing them. Mr. S. addressed the large audience near two hours. 
At first his voice was weak, but rose with the subject, as he progressed, 
until he filled the large hall distinctly. We do not propose to do more 
than give to our readers, very brieflj^, the ideas embodied in the speech, 
as we took no notes at the time. 

He spoke of the State of Indiana ; compared her condition now 
with what it was when he came to the State, in 1817, when she 
had a population of G5,000 souls ; when the most of her territory 
was a wilderness ; when her population was scattered sparsely over 
only a portion of the State ; when the seat of government was 
located a hundred miles south ; when there was not a mile of turn- 
pike, railroad, or canal in the State ; when the Indian paths were 
the only traveled road by the single horse and his rider ; when 
there was no commerce in the State beyond the small retailer ; when 
Cincinnati was the emporium of trade for all Eastern and Central 
Indiana, and the people of our State, and their trade and products were 
tributary to the growth, wealth and prosperity of cities beyond the 
State. He spoke of the quality of the soil, the mineral wealth, the 
pure water, the healthy climate of the State. He said that the popu- 
lation of the State was already fully one million and a half, and 
would reach ten millions. That the State was yet to be one of the 
most densely populated of any portion of the world, that its pro- 
ductiveness is inexhaustible, and where the food is there will be 
the mouths to eat it. He compared it with Asia Minor, Palestine 
and Africa, and showed why it was that those countries were so 
sparsely populated. It was because of the sterility and barrenness 
of the soil, and not the unhealthiness of the climate. He contrasted 
Indiana now, with what she is destined to be, if the people are true 
to themselves. He spoke of the location of Indianapolis, in the 
geographical center of the State, to be for all time the seat of 
Government. He had seen the site of the city when it was an 
unbroken forest. He contrasted the village as it sprung up in the 
8 



114 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

woods with the city now contaiuiDg twenty-five thousand inhabitants, 
the spires of its twenty-seven churches pointing to the clouds, its 
wide streets, its public and private edifices, its colleges and semina- 
ries of learning, its high and graded schools, its common ward- 
schools. He said if he had never done any thing else worth remember- 
ing, he should ever feel happy for being instrumental in establish- 
ing our ward-school system in the City Charter, that he viewed it 
as the great preservative feature in our social system, as the basis of 
our educational policy, that would prove a lasting blessing to the 
rising generation. He said much had been done in our educational 
and religious departments of society, and in that respect we were 
appreciated at home and abroad. Thousands would make Indianapolis 
their home now, who would not do so but for the advantages of educa- 
ting their children at one of our fine male and female schools, and 
of attending the churches of their choice. 

He spoke much and at length upon the great advantages of 
Indianapolis, in point of location, as a commercial and manufactur- 
ing city. The time was when she was inland, with no prospect 
■of rivaling the cities located on navigable waters, but that time had 
gone by. Propelling power of steam on land, had revolutionized the 
•channels of Commerce, and our capital now stood at the very center 
•of her attractions, as the hub of the wheel, with the railroad spokes 
pointing to the circle, including the whole field of Western produc- 
tion, consumption, and demand. He urged upon the citizens to feel 
rather thankful, than proud, of their position; that while ours was 
the capital of the State, every citizen of the State was interested in 
her prosperity, that every other city, town, and village of the State 
daily contributes to the growth and prosperity of our city, and their 
citizens should be held, as even ourselves when among us, nor should 
;any invidious comparisons be drawn between the growth and pros- 
perity of the capital and any other city in the State. We are all inter- 
ested in the welfare of each other. He said he had no doubt but 
that Indianapolis would yet be among the largest inland cities of 
the United States, commanding an immense inland commerce ; that 
she is surrounded by one of the best countries on the globe, with 
rich mineral, coal, rock, iron, fire-clay, timber and hydraulic power 
inexhaustible. He pointed to the great fiicilities to make Indianapolis 
one of the first manufacturing cities of the United States. The con- 
centration of railroads, and consequent radiation through the Valley 
•of the Mississippi, must give a demand equal to any supply. He 
spoke of Indianapolis being one of the best points in the United 
Stales for the first-class wholesale iobbing-houses. One or two such 



citizens' meeting at masonic hall. 115 

houses might do a fair business, but fifty would do a hundred times 
as much. The whole country penetrated by our flying trains must 
learn that they are throwing away both time and money, by passing 
our wholesale dealers to visit Eastern cities ; and that time will never 
come until the supply here is equal to a fair demand, and the prices 
shall be as low as Eastern prices, with the cost of transportation from 
the Atlantic cities. He alluded to the importance of sustaining our 
city mechanics and manufacturers ; spoke strongly against the prac- 
tice of moneyed men refusing accommodations to struggling mechanics 
and manufacturers, upon good and safe security, urged thg necessity 
of concentrated energy, and good feeling, to the common purposes 
of aiding in the course essential to the j^rosperity of the city. He 
spoke highly of the Board of Trade, and the course of its President 
and leading members, and trusted that they would be sustained in 
their laudable object of making Indianapolis known to the country, 
with the advantages of her position. He appealed to the business 
men of the city to establish themselves at once upon principles 
of the strictest integrity and faith with their customers. Let the 
price to the child be the price to the adult ; have but one price for 
the article to all. Reputation to the dealer is as valuable as to the 
divine. Let it once be understood that Indianapolis dealers are 
honest in every particular and they will draw to them the surround- 
ing country. The reputation of the Philadelphia merchants, for 
fair dealing, has thrown upon them millions of dollars that would 
otherwise never have reached that city. He noticed the article 
that appeared in the Sentinel in the morning ; said the author left 
his tracks behind ; he was an old fogy that never voluntarily paid a 
dollar toward the prosperity of the city. 

Mr. S. closed by urging all to unite with the Board of Trade in 
the good work in which they were engaged. He was frequently 
applauded by the audience during the address. 



116 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

[Wednesday Morxing, August 26, 1857. 

EARLY CONDITION OF INDIANA. 

While my mind is on Indiana, the reader will excuse me for defer- 
ring my sketclies of the House of Representatives; the Senate, the 
Supreme Court and other matters at AYashington, to a more convenient 
season. And, as these sketches seem to be looked upon as a part of the 
history of early Indiana, while I make no such pretensions, and refer 
the public to the authentic history of the State by my valued friend 
John B. Dillon, Esq., State historian, I may be excused for stating 
some matters that will be only interesting to the citizens of our State 
who would like to compare Indiana as she was, with Indiana as she is. 
I shall not even attempt the comparison, but leave the reader to make 
it for himself. 

At the time I came to the State in March, 1817, there was not a rail- 
road in the United States, nor a canal west of the Alleghany mountains. 
The telegraph had not been discovered, fire was struck by the flint and 
steel, the falling spark was caught in " punk " taken from the knots 
of the hickory tree. — There was not a foot of turnpike road in the 
State, and plank roads had never been heard of; the girdled standing 
trees covering the cultivated fields, the shovel-plow the only cultivator, 
no roads west of Whitewater, not a bridge in the State ; the traveling 
all done on horseback, the husband mounted before on the saddle, 
with from one to three of the youngest children in his arms — the wife, 
with a spread cover reaching to the tail of the horse, seated behind, 
with the balance of the children unable to walk in her lap. We young 
gentlemen retained the luxury of a single horse ; not a carriage nor 
buggy in all the country. After some years Mr. Lovejoy brought a 
buggy without a top, to Connersville, from New England. I borrowed 
it to ride to Wayne county, but I gave up the buggy and took my 
horse, for fear the people would think me proud, and it would injure 
my election to Congress. 

The finest farms around Connersville, in one of the most beautiful 
countries in the world, cleared, with orchards and common buildings, 
were $5 to $10 per acre. I bought the fine form of one hundred and 
sixty acres, adjoining Connersville, the same now the residence of my 
friend Hon. Samuel W. Parker, of John Adair, of Brook ville, for $9 
per acre, in three annual installments without interest. The brick two- 
story dwelling in which I lived when I was elected to Congress, in the 
heart of Connersville, twenty-six feet front, well finished, with back 
kitchen, lot 2G by 180, good stable, I bought of Sydnor Dale for S?325, 
— which was considered a high price at the time. The excellent farm 



I 



A BRAYE INDIAX, ETC. 117 

over the river one mile below town, in 1828, I bought of William Den- 
man for $5 per acre, in payments. There was very little money in 
the country, and jiroduce was equally low in proportion. I bought 
the finest qualities of stall-fed beef, and corn-fed hogs, for family use, 
at a cent and a half per pound ; corn ten cents, wheat twenty-five 
cents per bushel, wood delivered and cut short at the door at a dollar 
per cord ; boarding at common houses, with lodging, from a dollar to 
two dollars a week, and at the very best hotels two dollars and a half. 
The first year I traveled the circuit, my fees fell short of two hundred 
dollars; and the second, when they increased to three hundred, I felt 
as safe as a Stephen Grirard. All my wants were supplied, I owed 
nothing, and had money in my pocket. — No white man had settled 
more than five miles west of Connersville at that time. 



A BRAVE INDIAN. 

The country from "Williams Creek, in Fayette, to the Wabash, one 
hundred and twenty-five miles, was a wilderness, in the possession of 
the wandering tribes of Indians. Connersville was filled with them 
every day. Among them was a warrior they called John, a great 
talker, telling the most miraculous stories of what he had done — in 
killing bears single-handed and without arms. I informed another 
Indian what John had told me. " My brother John pretty much lie 
— he great coward." 

It so happened that John's courage was tested that night, just at 
twilight. The town was aroused by the cry of " bear, " and sure 
enough along Main street came loping on one of the largest black bears 
I have ever seen, pursued by a crowd of men and dogs. He had been 
started out of the wet, bushy prairie north of town. He came to Cross 
street, turned square off to the east in the direction of the river, where 
several of us were standing, with Indian John close by. The moment 
John saw him he came running to our company, greatly alarmed, 
crying at the top of his voice — " Bear bite hard — kill Indian quick, " 
and slid into our center. On came the bear. — Just before he reached 
us one of our company, who had a rifle, shot him in the bead. He 
rolled over, stretched himself out with a growl and died. His hide 
was soon ofi", and next morning at breakfast the whole town was feasting 
on bear meat. 



THE LAWYERS OF EARLY INDIANA. 

Our lawyers were what the world calls self-made men — meaning men 
who have not had the advantages of rich fathers, and early education, 



118 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

to whom the higher seminaries and colleges were sealed books. 
Men gifted by nature with strong, vigorous, clear intellects, fine health, 
and sound constitutions. Men who, like the newly-hatched swan, 
were directed by nature to their proper elements, their proper profes- 
sion. Few of them failed of success. Necessity urged to action. 
With most of them it was " root or die." In ninety-nine cases out of 
every hundred of the failures in the difi"erent professions and avocations 
in life, charged by the world to " bad luck, " it is nothing more nor 
less than the selection of a profession, avocation or business that 
nature never intended you for. The smallest teal, or duck, that swims 
on the bosom of the Chesapeake Bay, would sink and drown in that 
element the best-blooded and finest game-cock that ever old Virginia 
produced in her most chivalric days ; while in the cockpit the teal, or 
duck, would ber nowhere in the fight. Our counties furnished too little 
business for the resident attorneys ; we all looked to a circuit practice. 
Some rode the whole circuit, and others over but few counties. 

We sometimes had a little sparring in our cases in trials, but it ended 
there, and we stood banded together like brothers. At the Rush Cir- 
cuit Court my friend Judge Perry bargained for a pony for twenty- 
five dollars, to be delivered the next day, on a credit of sis months. 
The man came with the pony, but required security of the Judge for 
the twenty-five dollars. The Judge drew the note at the top of a 
sheet of foolscap, and signed it. I signed it ; James Rariden signed 
it and passed it on, and on it went from lawyer to lawyer around the 
bar, till some twenty of us had signed it. I then handed it up to the 
Court, and the three judges put their names to it. Judge Perry pre- 
sented it to the man he had bought the pony of, but he promptly 
refused to receive it. " Do you think I am a fool, to let you get the 
Court and all the lawyers on your side ? I see you intend to cheat 
me out of my pony." Up he jumped and ran out of the court- 
house, mounted the pony and started for home at full galloi^. 

The great variety of trials and incidents on the circuit gave to the 
life of a traveling attorney an interest that we all relished exceedingly. 
There was none of the green-bag city monotony, no dyspepsia, no 
gout, no ennui, rheumatism or neuralgia: consumption was a stranger 
among us. An occasional jump of the toothache, relieved by the 
turnkey of the first doctor we came to, was the worst. All was fun, 
good humor, fine jokes well received, good appetites and sound sleep- 
ing, cheerful landlords and good-natured landladies at the head of the 
table. We rode first-class horses; Gen. Noble on " Wrangler," for 
which he gave $60; Drew on "Drew Gray," cost $70; Caswell on 
"Blue Dick," cost $65; Rariden on "Old Gray," cost $80; John 



DOG AND DAMAGES. 119 

Test on " Bay Filly," cost $50 ; Gen. McKinney on " McKinney 
Koan," cost $45 ; David Wallace on " Ball," cost $40 ; Amos Lane on 
" Big Sorrel," cost $60 ; Judge Eggleston on "Indian Pony," cost 
$35 ; George H. Dunn on " Dancing Rabbit," cost $40 ; James B. 
Ray on " Red Jacket," cost $60 ; Martin M. Ray on " John," cost 
$35 ; William R. Morris on " Jacob," cost $50 ; Charles H. Test on 
" Archie," cost $40 ; John S. Newman on " Clay Bank," cost $60, 
and I rode " Grey Fox," that cost me $90. These were the highest 
prices at that day for the very best traveling horses in the country. 
They were trained to the cross-pole mud roads, and to swimming. 
Our attorneys were ready, off-hand practitioners, seldom at fault for 
the occasion. Sometimes we had to meet attorneys from other States, 
who would fling in the Latin and technical terms with a triumphant 
air, but in most cases they were foiled by the quick retorts of our bar. 



DOG AND DAMAGES. 

On one occasion an action on the case had been brought by a learned 
attorney from Ohio, by the name of Crouch, against an old widow lady 
— damages claimed twenty dollars. It appeared in evidence that the 
old lady had a beautiful daughter that the defendant was paying his 
suit to. One dark night the plaintiff put on his new white Irish-linen 
suit, fine ruflied shirt, with silk gloves, white stockings and morocco 
shoes ; cane in hand he stepped up to the house of the old lady and 
rapped at the door. At that moment a large >St. Bernard dog belong- 
ing to the old lady sprang around the corner of the house and jumped 
at the lover with a growl. The young man, frightened almost out of 
his moroccos, left the door in an instant and ran into a large mud-hole 
a few rods off, of the existence of which he had no knowledge, and 
fell prostrate, covering himself all over with dirty water, and leaving 
the shape of his body in the mud. 

The question before the advocates was as to the liability of the old 
lady for the damages done to the dandy's clothes. The learned Ohio 
lawyer opened for the plaintiff, and contended that the case came strictly 
with the principles of " Qui facit per alium, facit per se." Mr. Caswell, 
for the old lady, denied the position, and urged upon the Court that 
the case was governed by the principles of" Damnum absque injuria." 
The Court held the case over till morning. Judge Harlan.—" The 
Court is of the opinion that this is not a case of ' Qui facit per alium,' 
but comes within the principles of ' Damnum absque injuria,' vv'hich, 
if the Court understands herself, is a damnahh injury ; but as the old 
lady was in no way to blame, the judgment is given for the defendant." 



120 EARLY INDIAXA TEIALS. 



[Thursday Morni.vg, September 3, 1857. 

A POLITICAL LIBEL SUIT--WHAT IT COSTS TO 
CALL A MAN A "FEDERALIST." 

In early times there was tried in the Franklin Circuit Court an 
action for libel, of some importance to the reading politicians of the 
country, and especially to those who have some recollection of the 
great political contest between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson 
for President. I call the parties to the suit, Joshua Harlan, plaintiff, 
and John Allen, defendant. Judge Sparks was at the time Presi- 
dent Judge, but was not on the bench until after the verdict was 
returned. The case was tried before the Associates. General James 
Xoble was counsel for the plaintiffs, and John Test for the defendant. 
The declaration set out the libel at length. The only part necessary 
to notice here read, " ' Joshua Harlan is an old federalist, ' by the 
publishing of which false, scandalous and defamatory libel, the plain- 
tiff' has been brovight into public disgrace, and his neighbors have 
since refused to have any intercourse with him." The counsel for 
the defendant filed a general demurrer to the declaration, insisting 
that the paper was not a libel, if proved ; that it was not action- 
able to call a man a " Federalist." The Court stopped Gen. Noble, 
and held that they would submit the whole matter to the jury, who 
were the judges of the law as well as of the fact. Demurrer over- 
ruled ; plea of " not guilty " filed, and a jury impanneled with 
great difficulty, after exhausting the regular panel, and setting aside 
some scores of talesmen for cause, upon their answer to the question 
dictated from the bench, " Have you formed or expressed any opinion 
whether it is slander to call a man a Federalist ! " The jury were 
sworn and put in charge of a sworn officer, with instructions by the 
Court to suffer no one to speak to them, nor even to talk among them- 
selves until they had heard the evidence and charge of the Court, as 
the case was one of great importance. Court met in the morning ; 
motions dispensed with ; the court-house crowded with a deeply excited 
audience ; looks of compassion directed to the plaintiff, who sat by 
the side of Gen. Noble, his counsel, and of indignation and contempt 
for the defendant, who was seated by his counsel on the opposite side 
of the table. It was evident that the audience were all on one side, 
and as jurors generally sympathize with the outsiders in feelings, the 
result was easily anticipated. But under the rulings of the associates 
the case had to be proved to the satisfaction of the jury. General 
Noble. — " The plaintiff's witnesses will stand up and be sworn." Some 
thirty rose from a long bench, looking very much like the men that 



A POLITICAL LIBEL SUIT. 121 

composed Falstaff's company. Witnesses sworn. " We will examine 
Mr. Herndon first." Herndon a man about seventy years of age, 
raised in the woods of Kentucky, who came to the Territory of Indiana 
before the army under Gen. George Roger Clark marched upon Post 
Vincent, took the witness-stand. Gen Noble. — " Mr. Herndon, do you 
consider it libelous and slanderous to call a man a Federalist?" "I 
do." " Which would you rather a man would call you, a ' Federalist' 
or a ' horse-thief? ' " "I would shoot him if he called me one or the 
other," turning his eyes with much feeling on the defendant. " You 
have not answered the question." " I would rather be called any thing 
under the heavens than a Federalist." " What damages would you 
say the defendant should pay for this libel in calling the plaintiiF a 
Federalist? " " I would say a thousand dollars, at least." " Take the 
witness." Judge Test. — " Mr. Herndon what do you understand by a 
Federalist? " " My understanding is that it means a tory, an enemy 
to his country." "Is that the common acceptation of the term?" 
" Yes, I have never heard any other from the first settlements in Ken- 
tucky up to the present time." No more questions. General Noble. — 
" A single rebutting question ; Mr. Herndon, would you eel safe, with 
a Federalist by your side, to meet the Indians in a bush ti^ut? " " I 
would not ; I would jiist as soon have one of the hostile Indians with 
his rifle and tomahawk by my side." A moment's private whispering 
between the counsel. General Noble. — " May it please the Court, we 
have sitting there twenty- nine other witnesses that we are ready to 
examine ; but to save time, it is agreed by the counsel, that they will 
each swear to the same facts as those stated by Mr. Herndon, and that 
the publication of the libel is admitted." No evidence was ofi'ered for 
defendant. Lengthy and able speeches were made by the counsel on 
both sides, covering in their range the history of the General Govern- 
ment from its organization, with Gen. Washington at its head ; the 
election of Mr. Jefferson over the elder Adams ; the close and exciting 
contest between Jefferson and Aaron Burr ; the articles of confedera- 
tion ; the adoption of the new Constitution ; the Cunningham corres- 
pondence ; the visit of the citizen Genet to the United States ; the alien, 
sedition and gag laws ; the impeachment of Judge Chase ; and the 
examination of Aaron Burr for treason, before Justice Marshall. The 
speeches closed near midnight. The jury retired. Next morning 
the charge was to be given. An hour before the time for opening 
the court the room was filled to a perfect jam. Sheriff. — " Silence in 
the court ! " The jurors called and in the box. The Presiding Asso- 
ciate. — " Gentlemen of the jury, this is an important case. You are 
the judges of the law and the fact. This Court do not feel authorized 



122 EAELY INDIANA TKIALS. 

to invade the province of tlie jury ; the whole case is with you." The 
jury retired to their room, and in a few minutes returned into court. 
Foreman. — " We find that to charge a man with being a Federalist is 
libelous, and we assess the damages of the plaintifi" at one thousand 
dollars, the amount sworn to by Mr. Herndon, and would have been 
by the other twenty-nine witnesses that were not examined, as was 
admitted by the counsel." " The Court are well satisfied with your 
verdict, gentlemen ; you are discharged to get your dinners, as you 
have not yet breakfasted." 



BRITISH AUTHORITIES IN INDIANA COURTS. 

I SKETCH another case of high importance in the same court — names 
of parties immaterial. A lawyer I call John Mattocks, Jr., one of the 
most learned men in early Indiana, a graduate of old Yale, with Latin, 
Greek, Hebrew and divers technical terms at his tongue's end, a partial 
acquaintance with the legal learning of the old English authors at 
ready command, for plaintifi", and General Noble for the defendant. 
The action was what lawyers call "trespass quare clausum fregit;" 
pleas "not guilty," and " liberum tenementum." The action was 
brought by the plaintifi" against the defendant for entering the close 
of the plaintifi", cutting down a bee-tree, and carrying away the swarm 
of bees ; damages, five dollars for the tree, and three dollars for the 
bees. The plaintiff" was the owner of the land. The defendant was 
in possession under a lease that had expired, but no notice to quit 
had been given. The case submitted to the associate judges. The 
evidence was heard, and next morning the argument commenced 
between the learned Eastern lawyer, armed with his Latin, Greek, 
Hebrew, and classical knowledge, topped off" with an ornamented 
diploma with large red ribbons and a seal as large as the palm of the 
hand, and Gen. Noble, who had been raised in the backwoods, edu- 
cated in the winter-time and at nights, in a little fifteen -by-twenty loo- 
school-house in Kentucky, armed with a large amount of common 
sense. Mr. Mattocks had before him an an-ay of the old books. Coke 
on Lyttleton, Blackstone's Commentaries, Jacob's Law Dictionary, 
Wood's Institutes, Bacon's Abridgment, Strange's Wilson's and 
Atkyn's Reports. Thus prepared he commenced the argument for 
the plaintiff with a confident air. Gen. Noble sat silent while his 
opponent read authority after authority, ease after case, and decision 
after decision, many of them directly in point against the General. 
His argument consumed the day, greatly annoying the Court, who 
understood very little of it. The next morning Gen. Noble opened 



BRITISH AUTHORITIES IN INDIAJs^A COURTS. 123 

for the defendant in one of the most conclusive speeches ever deliv- 
ered in that court-house. He said, "If the Court please, I shall not 
attempt to follow the learned gentleman, in his long speech, nor even 
to read and comment on his authorities ; they may all be well enough 
in the right place, in their proper jurisdiction ; but they have no bear- 
ing whatever in this Court, in this jurisdiction. I hold in my hand 
a book from which I will read a few extracts." The Court. — " What 
book is that, General Noble?" "It is the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence." " Yes, that is coming to the point ; read it, General." The 
General read, — " When in the course of human events, it becomes neces- 
sary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have con- 
nected them with another, and to assume among the i30wers of the 
earth, the separate and equal station, to which the laws of nature and 
nature's God entitle them " — " We, therefore, the representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, appealing to the 
Supreme Judge of the world, for the rectitude of our intentions, do in 
the name, and by the authority of the good people of these Colonies, 
solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies, are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved 
from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connec- 
tion between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, 
totally dissolved:" The General ceased reading. The Court. — " That 
is conclusive. These British authorities were all cut off on the 4th 
day of July, 1776. Judgment for the defendant." 



124 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Saturuat Morning, September 5, 1857. 

REV. JOHN P. DURBIN. 

In the woods of early Indiana, there were assembled for worship 
at a small log school-house one Sabbath morning, several of the 
neighbors from the settlements around. It was getting late and there 
was no preacher yet. But in a few minutes there was seen riding up 
on his pony, singing a Methodist hymn, a young preacher, a mere 
youth, small of stature, young in appearance, spare in person, light 
hair, blue eyes, high forehead, kind and benevolent in countenance, 
wearing a short frock-coat. It was John P. Durbin, commencing his 
journey on his circuit. He preached, his zeal was great, his voice 
strong for his appearance, but he seemed to forget that it required 
care and training to preserve it in its volume and tone. 

Time rolled on and when still a young man, Mr. Durbin found 
himself involuntarily upon the sujierannuated list, his voice had given 
way, while his mind was growing into the stature of a man. For 
years he abstained from all ministerial labors, much against his will, 
without any improvement of his voice. Under the advice of an elder 
who encountered similar difficulties, Mr. Durbin commenced preaching 
again, in his common conversational tone of voice. At first the con- 
gregations were hardly satisfied ; but the more they heard him, the 
better they liked him, until there were few who drew larger congrega- 
tions, or held them with deeper feelings. Time rolled on. 

We heard of Dr. Durbin at Augusta College, Kentucky, and after- 
ward as President of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He 
was about to sail on his tour to Europe and Asia, when I saw a notice 
in a Washington city paper that he would preach his farewell sermon 
in Wesley Chapel. Early in the evening I entered. The house was 
so crowded that my seat was near the door. After a short and feeling 
prayer, the hymn was read in a solemn tone : 

Plunged in a gulf of dark despair 

We wretched sinners lay, 
Without one cheerful beam of hope, 

Or spark of glimmering day. 

With pitying eyes-tlie prince of grace 

Beheld our helpless grief; 
He saw, and — Oh ! amazing love ! — 

He ran to our relief. 

Down from the shining seats above, 

With joyful haste he tied, 
Entered the grave in mortal flesh, 

And dwelt among tLe dead. 



REV. JOHN P. DURBIN. 125 

Oh ! for this love let rocks and hills 

Their lasting silence break ; 
And all harmonious human tongues 

The Savior's praises speak. 

Angels! assist our mighty joys; 

Strike all your harps of gold: 
But when you raise your highest notes, 

His love can ne'er be told. 

The liymn was sung, the whole congregation rising, and the text 
announced. For the first half hour the preacher was very common- 
place. His small figure, weak voice, and difiident manner, were 
any thing but prepossessing. By degrees he rose with his subject 
and became towering, sublime and powerful, above all my anticipa- 
tions. His subject was Infidelity. He was surrounded by a large 
number of the preachers of the Baltimore Conference. His discourse 
seemed to be directed to the preachers. I was not prepared for his 
questions and answers. " Brethren, we preach that men are infidels 
because they make no profession of religion. Is this so ? I think 
not. I doubt whether there ever was an infidel who had lived in a 
Christian land under a preached gospel. I illustrate. Take a boat 
with ten passengers, five of them professors of religion, standing at 
the head of their churches, and five what the world calls infidels : 
blind-fold, turn them out into the suck of the falls of Niagara, take 
of the blinds and let them see the cataract before them, and know 
that in a few minutes they must inevitably be dashed into the foaming 
waters below, that there is no earthly hand that can save, and do you not 
believe that the supposed infidels will be among the first on their knees 
imploring mercy? He is not dead but sleepeth, and it is the duty of 
the preacher to arouse him from his slumber, to show him that his 
little boat is tending rapidly to the cataract, and unless he awakes and 
pleads for mercy ere it is too late, he must be lost forever." 

Time still rolled on, and in the early part of May, 1856, I was 
sitting in my parlor at Indianapolis, w^hen there entered with a light 
step and pleasant smiling countenance, a small, graceful man, and 
introduced himself as the Kev. John P. Durbin, come to stay with 
me during the General Conference. He had greatly changed since 
last I saw him, still I should have recognized him by his eyes and 
mouth. He was a most welcome guest. I no longer looked upon him 
as a mere Methodist preacher. As such, indeed he would have been 
welcome at my house, but since I had seen him he had traveled over 
Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor ; had visited Naples, Cairo, 
Memphis, the Pyramids, the Red Sea, the Arabian Deserts, Mount 
Sinai, Petra, Hebron, the Holy Land, Bethany, Mount Zion, the 



126 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

Valley of Jeliosliaphat, the Mountains of Lebanon, Horeb, Bethleheinj 
Nazareth, Getlisemane, the Tombs of the Pharaohs, the Pools of Sol- 
omon, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Mount Tabor, 
Damascus, Balbec, Smyrna, Ephesus, Laoclicea, Sardis, Thyatira, 
and Constantinople ; had rode the milk white Arabian steed on the 
banks of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and given to the -world his 
observations on Europe and the East — such was Dr. Durbin as he 
then stood before me. During the month he was with me, we often 
passed oyer to Palestine. His fine conversational powers, the clear- 
ness of his mind, the ample store of his knowledge, made our inter- 
course of a character not to be forgotten. 

The Sabbath was approaching, and it was announced that Dr. Durbin 
would preach at Robert's Chapel. I went with him to church. I 
had not heard him since his Washington sermon. The house was 
crowded. The Doctor kneeled in prayer; it was short, and thrillingly 
sublime and affecting, The hymn was given out and sung by the 
congregation, when the Doctor rose, and in a low tone of voice com- 
menced his sermon. His subject was, " The Christian sacrifice without 
the gates of Jervisalem, and the Jewish sacrifice within the temple." 
I had frequently heard these subjects preached upon, but I confess 
that the Doctor jilaced them in a new light before my mind. He 
spoke of the time that these great events transpired ; showed from 
Scripture and calculations that the crucifixion of Christ, without the 
gates, which was the Christian sacrifice, took place at the same time 
that the Jewish sacrifice in the temple was made, and at the moment 
that Christ cried, " It is finished," and expired on the cross, the veil 
of the temple was rent asunder, the priesthood on earth was ended, and 
the great high-priest was translated to heaven. He spoke of the 
body of Christ, and answered his own question, " What was its 
nature ? " " I answer, he was of the nature of his parents, human 
and divine ; his mother was Mary, and his ftither was God." As the 
sermon progressed the Doctor grew in power, and closed as he had 
done at Washington, the last half-hour in much higher strains of 
pulpit eloquence than his beginning seemed to indicate. Take this 
sermon all in all, there have been few such preached in our city, for 
sublimity, beaiity and power. Church over, we returned home. I 
remarked to the Doctor that I thought he was too systematic for an 
ordinary Methodist sermon. His reply was that it was his custom to 
preach fi-om short notes, that he believed in system order and prep- 
aration, as well as fervent zeal, that from his notes he could rejireach 
any sermon he had delivered since his return from his Eastern 
tour. 



KEY. JAMES FLOY. 127 

REV. JAMES FLOY. 

The companion of Dr. Durbin at the General Conference, was the 
Kev. James Floy, of the city of New York, another distinguished 
divine, who when but a youth was selected as the pupil from the 
United States, of the royal gardens of London ; remaining years 
abroad, and became one of the first horticulturists, botanists and 
florists of our country, as he is now one of the first preachers in the 
Methodist connection. Dr. Floy preached but one sermon during his 
stay in our city. It was at night, at Wesley Chapel. His opening 
prayer was very short ; the congregation sang the beautiful hymn, 

Cbildren of the heavenly king, 
As ye journey sweetly sing ; 
Slug our Savior's worthy praise, 
Glorious in his works and ways. 

Ye are traveling home to God, 
In the way the fathers trod ; 
They are happy now, and ye 
Soon their happiness shall see. 

Shout, ye little flock! and blest 
You ou .Jesus' throne shall rest; 
There, your seat is now prepared, — 
There, your kingilom and reward. 

Fear not, brethren ! joyful stand 
On the borders of your land; 
.Jesus Christ, your Father's Son, 
Bids you undismayed go on. 

Lord ! submissive make us go, 
Gladly leaving all below; 
Only thou our leader be, 
And we still will follow thee. 

The test — " And Peter answered him, and said. Lord if it be thou, 
bid me come unto thee, on the waters. And he said come. And 
when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to 
go to Jesus." 

From the text the sermon embraced the power of God, and the 
power and duty of man to obey the divine injunction ; that when God 
commands, he gives power to obey. " He said to Peter, ' come,' and he 
walked upon the water. He said to the sick of the palsy, ' Arise, 
take up thy bed and go unto thine house,' and he arose. He said 
unto the sea, ' Peace, be still,' the winds ceased, and there was a great 
calm. He said to the devils ' go,' and they went into the herd of 
swine. He said, ' daughter be of good comfort,' and the woman was 



128 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

made whole from that hour. He touched the eyes of the blind, and 
their eyes were opened. He said to the man with the withered hand, 
' Stretch forth thine hand,' and he stretched it forth, and it was 
restored like the other. He said to the brother of Martha and Mary, 
' Lazarus come forth,' and the dead arose. There is no excuse for 
neglect of duty. God requires of man only what he gives him ability 
to perform, and if he is lost, God is not in fault — the consequences 
are with disobedient man." 

The General Conference adjourned, and these eminent divines 
returned to the field of their labors in Philadelphia and New York. 



EAELY INDIANA LAWYERS, ETC. 129 

[Monday Moening, September 7, 1857. 

EARLY INDIANA LAWYERS. 

Among the prominent young men of the early Whitewater bar was 
Judge Charles H. Test, a son of the Hon. John Test. He was a young 
man of fine talents and great energy of character. At quite an earlj' 
age he took a high position among the ablest of the profession. In 
person he was slender, about the medium hight, a small head, high 
forehead, and teeth projecting. He was not a very handsome man, 
and still his countenance lit up so well when speaking that he passed 
without particular observation. One instance, however, that looked 
like an exception to this remark I remember. James T. Brown had 
drawn an indictment against a man for gambling, but had forgotten 
to charge a wagering for money or other valuable articles. Judge Test 
moved to quash the indictment on the ground that it was " bad on its 
face." Brown seeing the point, and knowing that he was gone, rising 
with his peculiar waggish look — " Mr. Test, if every thing is quashed 
that is Ijad on its face, what would become ofi/mi7" The forte of the 
young Judge was before the jury upon focts. He made a strong argu- 
ment, and his sympathetic appeals were unsurpassed. His habits were 
strictly temperate. He held the offices of President Judge of the 
Circuit and Sex;retary of State many years, and then returned to the 
practice in the county of Wayne where he now resides, in fine health. 
in the meridian of life. 



A LAWYER FINED. 

I HAVE several times introduced to the reader James T. Brown, of 
Greensburg. He was of the youngest class of lawyers when I first 
knew him. By nature he was a man of fine powers, and yet a great 
wag. I could fill an article with interesting incidents in which he was 
a party. Let one suffice to show the character of his mind. On one 
occasion he was employed to defend a case before the Circuit Court. 
The judge was not very learned in technicalities, knew but little Latin 
and much less Greek, The jury were taken from the country, ordi- 
nary formers. The plaintiffs counsel had opened. Brown rose and 
spoke two hours in the highest possible style, soaring aloft, repeating 
Latin and translating Greek, using all the technical terms he could 
bring to the end of his tongue. The jury sat with their mouths open. 
The judge looked on with amazement, and the lawyers laughed aloud. 
Brown closed; the case was submitted to the jury without one word 
of reply. Verdict in the bos against Brown. Motion for a new 
9 



130 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

trial. In the morning Brown rose and bowed to the Court, " May it 
please your honors, I humbly rise this morning to move for a new 
trial ; not on my own account ; I richly deserve the verdict ; but on 
behalf of my client, who is an innocent party in this matter. On 
yesterday I gave wings to my imagination and rose above the stars 
in a blaze of glory. I saw at the time that it was all Greek and 
turkey-tracks to your honor and the jury. This morning I feel 
humble, and I promise the Court if they will grant me a new trial, 
I will bring myself down to the comprehension of the Court and 
jury." The judge. — " Motion overruled, and a fine of five dollars 
against Mr. Brown, for contempt of Court." "For what?" "For 
insinuating that this Court don't know Latin and Greek from turkey- 
tracks." "I shall not appeal from that decision, your honor has 
comprehended me this time." 



NEW ASSIGNMENT. 

There came to Connersville in early times, a learned lawyer I call 
Martin Hale, a fine scholar. lie made high pretensions, wore a long 
queue, a nicely-plaited rufiled shirt, and over all, a tartan plaid cloak, 
the first I had ever seen. He was looked upon as altogether superior 
to us woods' lawyers, and foolishly remarked that " He had come to 
Connersville to settle because there was no talent there." I was 
at work in my garden in my shirt sleeves, when I saw him approach- 
ing. He inquired if Mr. Smith was about home. I told him that 
was my name. "It is the Counselor Smith I want to see." "I 
am the man." He turned on his heel and walked on without a 
word, and afterward told a gentleman at the hotel that I could not 
impose myself on him as a lawyer. Soon after he brought an action 
of trespass, vi ct armis, for a most aggravated assault and battery. 
For the defendant, I filed a plea of "justification" — on the lot of my 
client using no more force than was necessary to remove the plain- 
tifi" from the premises. Mr. Hale took up the plea, looked remarkably 
wise, — " He thinks I have never read the doctrines of new assign- 
ments, but I will show him." He sat down and filed a " new assign- 
ment," that the assault and battery was committed in the biglnvay, 
and not on the premises of the defendant. I answered " not guilty 
in the highw^ay." The jury was sworn, the Court confined the proof 
to the highway, and consequently there was no evidence in the 
case, as the assault was really committed on the lot of the defendant. 
Verdict for defendant. Mr. Hale left us soon after, with the remark 
to the judgj that he could not practice in a coxirt that knew nothing 



STOPPING REPORTS, ETC. 131 

of the science of " new assignments," that he was a first-class lawyer 
where he came from, but it would take him too long to get acquainted 
with our practice. The judge was somewhat irritated, but I told him 
that friend Hale was like the Irishman that hired for a ferryman, 
and got on the wrong side of the oar. Employer. — " You told me 
that you were a good ferryman." Patrick. — " And so I was in Ire- 
land, but I have not got acquainted with this country water yet." 



STOPPING REPORTS. 

While I was a student of law I had a valued fellow by the name 
of Merritt S. Craig, who settled and died young at Versailles, in 
Ripley county. Mr. Craig was a Kentuckian, of the family of Craigs 
of Boone county. In person large, with remarkably big protruding 
eyes, and one stiff knee. Mr. Craig was a noble specimen of the 
Kentucky character — open, frank, and hospitable. He was liberally 
dealt with by nature, but his opportunities were not sufficient to bring 
out his forensic powers. Like most young lawyers of his day he 
entered the field of politics too young. Was many sessions a mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives. He was a great eleetioneerer, 
and never was beaten. Just before an election his chances looked 
desperate. His defeat in the eyes of others was certain. All man- 
ners of reports had been circulated against him through the county. 
The last week had come, something must bo done or all was over 
with him. Craig saw his time, stepped into a grocery, turned over 
the counter, broke all the bottles, took the faucet out of the whisky 
cask, and threw the little grocer out of the door, but paid him for 
his property. The news flew like wildfire over the country, all other 
stories were merged in the grocery matter. The act was decidedly 
popular, as drinking-houses were odious, and Mr. Craig was elected 
by a larger majorit}'^ than he had ever before received, although he 
was not a Son of Temperance. ^^ 



COL. JOHN DUMONT. 

Let me not forget my valued friend Colonel John Dumont, of 
Vevay. I became acquainted with the Colonel in the Legislature 
of 1822-3, at Corydon. He was one of the most talented men of 
the body — always ready, but modest and retiring to a fault. In 
personal contests he had no equal in the House. On one occasion 
the question was, " whether we should elect a revisor of the laws, 
or revise them ourselves?" In the House, Mr. Dumont and myself, 



132 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

witli others, had opposed a Legislative revision, on the ground that 
we were not qualified to revise in session ; that the work would be 
imperfectly done. Our views ultimately prevailed, and Judge Benjamin 
Parke was elected Revisor. During the debate Dr. Childs, of Wash- 
ington county, in reply to my remarks, insisted that we were qualified 
to do the work ourselves. " Mr. Speaker, the wisdom of the State 
of Indiana is on this floor." Mr. Dumont.— " The gentlemen says 
the wisdom of Indiana is on this floor. I can hardly presume that 
the wisdom of my county is here, and I should be very sorry, Mr. 
Speaker, to think that the wisdom of "Washington county is on this 
floor." Mr. Dumont was a good lawyer, and an honest man. He 
was a candidate for Grovernor against Col. David Wallace — ran on 
the branch of the internal improvement system known as " Classifica- 
tion," while Governor Wallace went for the construction simultane- 
ously of the whole works. Col, Dumont was clearly right, but the 
majority went with Gov. Wallace. The Colonel was the husband 
of Mrs. Julia L. Dumont, a lady of high literary attainments, and 
the father of Col. Ebenczer Dumont, of the late Mexican War. 



JOHN S. NEWMAN. 

John S. Newman, of Wayne county, was another of my early 
valued friends. Mr. Newman was a fine practical lawyer, with a head 
as clear as a bell, a remarkably matured judgment at an early day in 
his profession. His strong, vigorous intellect made him a safe coun- 
selor and a valuable co-laborer in heavy cases. As a speaker, he 
was above mediocrity, but he never attempted that kind of impas- 
sioned eloquence that rises in some advocates to sxich bights as to 
carry the jury and outsiders with rapturous applause with the speaker. 
His talents are of the order called " useful," the most valuable in the 
end. Mr. Newman is now president of the Indiana Central Railway, 
in fine health. 



GEX. JACKSOX AND HEXRY CLAY. 133 



[Wednesday Mornixg, September 9, 1857. 

GEN. JACKSON AND HENRY CLAY. 

Time lias rolled on, since these great men filled the public mind, 
and they have both gone to their fathers. I knew them personally — 
was at one time an ardent personal and political friend and supporter 
of Mr. Clay. I am aware that I am treading on delicate ground, and 
that this sketch of these great leaders may be subjected to partisan 
criticism. It matters not. These sketches are my own, and not the 
opinions of others. Never were two men more alike than Gren. Jack- 
son and Henry Clay ; and yet in some particulars they diiFered widely. 
They were both poor boys, were self-made men ; neither liberally edu- 
cated ; each the projector and accomplisher of his own fortune and 
fame. Both vrere pioneers of the valley of the Mississippi. They 
were possessed of iron wills, born for leaders. Neither would ever 
play second to any other man ; both would be chiefs or nothing. 
Neither could brook opposition from friends or enemies. Each was 
the original of himself, requiring implicit obedience to his will : nei- 
ther ever quailed before an enemy. Each was jealous of the fame of 
the otlaer; both were ambitious, unquestionable patriots — true lovers 
of their country, ready at all times to peril their lives for its honor 
and glory. Each was the leader of a great party. The fxme of each 
filled the civilized world. In person they were alike, tall, spare, com- 
manding, long necks, heads erect, complexion light, eyes gray and 
sunken, faces long, foreheads high, features prominent and projecting, 
mouths wide, arms and fingers long and slender, step easy and grace- 
ful, private associations kind and courteous — both the admired, hon 
ored and respected of their friends. Each graced his social parties to 
the admiration of strangers as well as friends. Both, like Napoleon 
the First, absolute in the execution of their purposes. Gen. Jackson 
was one of the greatest military commanders of the age, upon the 
scale of the field of his battles. He needed no Secretary of War to 
instruct him how to marshal his army or when to strike the blow upon 
the enemy. He combined the military qualifications of Wellington, 
with the bravery of Charles the XII., and the judgment of Washington, 
without their opportunities of bringing his high qualities, as a Qom- 
mander, into action on extended fields. The battle of New Orleans, 
when viewed through the glass of time, with no political prejudices to 
obscure the vision, was one of the most brilliant military achievments 
recorded on the pages of history. Henry Clay, too, like Gen. Jack- 
son, was possessed of military talents of a high order, although they 
were not brought into action on the tented field. This was well known 



134 EARLY INDIAXA TEIALS. 

to those who knew him best. In 1812, Geu. Harrison, then in com- 
mand of the Northwestern army, wrote to Mr. Clay, from Cincinnati : 
" I inform you that, in my opinion, your presence on the frontier of 
this State would be productive of great advantages. I can assure you 
that your advice and assistance in determining the course of operations 
for the army, to the command of which I have been designated by 
your recommendation, will be highly useful. You are not only pledged 
In some manner for my conduct, but for the success of the war — for 
God's sake then, come on to Piqua as Cjuickly as possible, and let us 
endeavor to throw off, from the Administration, that weight of reproach 
which the late disasters will heap upon it," alluding to Hull's surrender 
at Detroit. I had it from high authority, that Mr. Madison in 1812, 
contemplated placing Mr. Clay at the head of the army, but was over- 
ruled by his Cabinet, solely on the ground that Mr. Clay could not 
be spared from the House of Representatives, as the efficient leader 
of the friends of the Administration during the war. They were both 
highly qualified by nature for great military commanders. Both aspired 
to the first office in the gift of the American people. General Jackson 
was successful, and Mr. Clay failed — here was a difference as to results, 
but not as to c^ualifications. No man in America was better qualified 
for President than Henry Clay, and no other man would have filled 
the executive chair with greater credit to himself or more honor to 
the nation. Thousands in the United States and Europe will long 
wonder why it was that Henry Clay never reached the Presidential 
chair. Being connected with all his campaigns, in the press, on the 
stump, and in private circles ; I answer, because Mr. Clay voted for 
John Quincy Adams against Gen. Jackson, in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and then accepted from Mr. Adams the office of Secretary 
of State. Gen. Jackson had received the highest vote of the electoral 
colleg'es, John Quincy Adams the next highest, William H. Crawford 
the next, and Henry Clay the lowest, but no one received a majority 
of the whole number. This threw the three highest, Gen. Jackson, 
John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford, into the House of 
Representatives, of which Mr. Clay was Speaker. The Constitution 
of the United States, made the three equally eligible, but public opin- 
ion .had awarded the election to General Jackson, who had received 
the highest vote, and the result of the vote of Mr. Clay for Mr. Adams, 
however pure, and however justified by Mr. Clay, was never satisfac- 
tory to the mass of the American people. It required explanations 
continually, and threw upon the friends of Mr. Clay the defensive in 
every field of political contest. I think the question is now. settled 
by the public voice, that no minority candidate of the three returned 



GETs\ JACKSON AND HENRY CLAY. 135 

to the House of Representatives will ever again be elected to the 
Presidency. 

Had the matter rested with the simple vote of Mr. Clay for Mr. 
Adams, — had Mr. Clay retained the Speakership, and refused to take 
office under Mr. Adams, his defense would have been far less difficult 
for his friends, but. most unfortunately the card of George Kreemer 
had been published, charging bargain and corruption between Mr. 
Clay and Mr. Adams, — that Mr. Clay had bargained with Mr. Adams 
to give his vote to Mr. Adams for President, in consideration of his 
appointment to the office of Secretary of State. However false this 
charge was — now admitted by the friends and enemies of Mr. Clay so 
to be, Mr. Clay, by accepting the office of Secretary of State under 
Adams, made the transaction hard of explanation, and in the minds 
of thousands it never was satisfactorily explained, but stuck in the 
public mind, and affected every subsequent election in which the name 
of Mr. Clay was before the people. — The results of the after contests 
of Mr. Clay for the Presidency have been attributed to many causes, 
but had he cast his vote for Gen. Jackson instead of Mr. Adams, or 
had he declined to hold office under Mr. Adams after he was elected, 
I entertain no doubt whatever that Mr. Clay would have succeeded 
Gen. Jackson as President of the United States by a triumphant 
majority. 

Gen. Jackson was no speaker, much less an orator. Like Thomas 
Jefferson, he was unable to debate the most common question. On 
one occasion, while he was chairman of the Military Committee, in the 
Senate of the United States, the bill he had reported was violently 
attacked in a set speech by Mr. Cobb, of Georgia. The General listened 
a few minutes to the speech, got up, walked around to the seat of 
Gen. Harrison and asked him to defend the bill, which he did effec- 
tually. Gen. Jackson said not a word on the subject. Such was the 
ease with Thomas Jefferson, the admitted draftsman of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. He left the defense of that immortal instrument 
to John Adams and others, without opening his mouth. 

Of the eloquence and powers of Henry Clay, in debate, I may say 
something when I come to sketch some of the Senators with whom I 
served. One incident, however, I notice now. Mr. Clay, Mr. Critten- 
den, Gen. Metcalf, and Mr. Harden paid Indiana a visit on one occa- 
sion. They entered the State at Richmond, came on the line of the 
Cumberland road to Indianapolis where there was an immense gather- 
ing. Mr. Clay addressed the people with his usual eloquence. His 
comrades also made excellent speeches. The next day they left for 
Madison. Several of us. in private carriages, accompanied them as 



136 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

far as Columbus. We arrived there about dusk. The road was dusty, 
and Mr. Clay was almost exhausted. He determined not to speak, and 
the rest of us went over to the court-house, leaving Mr. Clay lying on 
the bed. The house was crowded to suffocation. The moment we 
entered there was a cry for 3Ir. Clay, and we were compelled to send 
for him. He entered and walked up to the stand, intending to show 
himself and retire ; but as he bowed, an old fellow in the back part of the 
room bellowed out at the top of his voice, " Hurrah for Gen. Jackson ! " 
I saw the fire flash from the eyes of Mr. Clay. He paused a moment, 
raised himself uj) to his full hight, and with his highest volume of 
voice replied, " ' Plurrah for Gen. Jackson, that's your cry, is it? 
and where's your country ? " — He followed the idea with one of the 
most eloquent, brilliant and thrilling speeches of thirty minutes I ever 
heard him make : he spoke of Rome in the days of Caesar and Pom- 
pey, the country lost, while some hurrahed for Caesar, and some for 
Pompey; he begged of the audience to look to their country and not 
become the mere followers of men. He retired amid the thundering 
applause of the audience. 

I may again notice Mr. Clay among the Senators, and Gen. Jackson 
as President. 



SUPREME COURT, UNITED STATES. 137 

[Thursday Morning, September 10, 1857. 

SUPREME COURT, UNITED STATES. 

In January, 1827, the House adjourned over from Friday to Mon- 
day. I took Saturday to look into the Supreme Court. I had never 
seen the court in session. The form of the court-room oblong, the 
bar some three feet below the surrounding platform, one door only for 
entrance. The floor of the bar handsomely carpeted, with a long- 
table standing in front of the judges ; cushioned, roller arm-chairs 
for the lawyers ; the judges seated in a row, on a seat some few feet 
from the wall, so as to leave a passage behind. The Attorney General 
sat at the right of the judges, the clerk at the left, the marshal at the 
platform on the left. The room plain, with side, cushioned sofas for 
ladies and auditors. In front -of the judges, on the opposite wall, 
was seen the Goddess of Justice, holding the scales equally balanced, 
while busts of Chief Justices Ellsworth and Jay, stand on either 
side. These Representatives exhibited their sightless eyeballs as 
emblems of the character of the court, which is blind to the parties, while 
the scales are held in equipoise, as to the justice to be administered. I 
entered the room as the hand of the clock was pointed to eleven. The 
judges were just comingin from their side-room. The marshal metthem, 
and robed them with long, black-silk gowns, tied at the neck and reach- 
ing to the feet. I looked for the wigs to follow, like the representation 
of Sir William Blackstone, and I had some expectation of seeing 
the cocked hats surmounting the wigs, but the dress judicial did not 
go that far. I had never seen any thing like it before. It reminded 
me of the man who, having repeated several times that he would 
die at the stake for the religion of his father, was asked, " AVhat 
was your father's religion ? " "I do not exactly know, but it was 
some thing very solemn." " So with me ; I did not exactly know what 
the gowns were for, but I thought the Court looked very solemn ; 
that is, I thought so, but I was careful to keep my own counsels, 
as the marshal kept his eye occasionally in my direction. The judges 
were all seated, and the marshal, in a kind of nasal tone, cried out, 
'' Yea, yea, yea, yea ! the Supreme Court of the United States is now 
in session. All persons having business before the court will 
be heard. God save the United States and this honorable court." 
The court was opened. Chief Justice Marshal was seated in the 
"middle, on his right were Justices Story, Thompson and Duval ; on 
his left, Washington, Johnson and Trimble. William Wirt, Attorney 
General, was at his desk, and the Clerk at his table. I had a fine 
opportunity for the first time to see these great judges in session. 



138 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

I looked upon tlie Supreme Court of the United States as the con- 
servative power of our government, uneorrupted and incorruptible, 
standing aloof from popular excitements and partisan influences, 
with no other motives than to transmit the judicial ermine to pos- 
terity pure and unsullied. I had long heard of Chief Justice Mar- 
shall ; had cited his opinions as of the highest authority ; had read 
his life of Gen. Washington ; and there he sat before me, aged and 
venerable. He was above the common hight ; his features strongly 
marked ; an eye that spoke the high order of his intellect. He wore 
a short cue, black coat, breeches buckled at the knee, long black- 
silk stockings, and slioes with fine buckles. His manner on the 
bench was exceedingly kind and courteous to the bar. He heard 
with the greatest attention the arguments and authorities of counsel. 
Chief Justice Marshall deservedly stood first in the judiciary of the 
United States, and I think of the world, at his day. 

Judge Busiirod Washington, who sat at the left of the Chief 
Justice, was a much smaller man than Judge Marshall, venerable in 
appearance, with a face the index of a long life of laborious thought; 
his reported opinions show that he had a sound legal mind, but not 
of the very first order. 

Judge Story was at that time young looking, though the hair had 
left the forepart of his head. He was of the common size of men, 
fine features, and a countenance marking him as a deep thinker. He 
was considered at that early day the commercial judge of the bench. 
Judge Story went upon the bench quite a young man, and rose by 
degrees until he filled America and Europe with his fame. 

Judge Smith Thompson was in middle life ; he had been Secretary 
of the Navy and was considered a sound lawyer. He was said to 
have been a great student and a sound judge. His opinions read well. 

Judge Gabriel Duval was the oldest looking man on the bench. 
His head was as white as a snow-bank, with a long white cue, 
hanging down to his waist. He did not impress me at the time as 
being even up to mediocrity on the bench, and subsequent examina- 
tions of his decisions have only confirmed my first impressions. 

Judge Johnson, looked like a good-natured, fot Alderman of fifty- 
five. I thought he would not kill himself by labor ; was rather a 
surfoce than a deep judge. He was a good man, but never ranked 
with the first intellects on the bench. 

Judge Trimble was comparatively a young man at that time, to 
all appearances of a robust person, and strong constitution. He looked 
as if he would be one of the last to be called away, and yet he was 
one of the first, and Judge McLean was appointed, by President 



SUPREME COURT, UNITED STATES. ' 139 

Jackson as his successor. He was a man of decided talents, and 
would, no doubt, have distinguished himself on the bench had he 
lived. He lies sleeping beneath the soil of his own Kentucky. 

William Wirt sat at his table, with his face to the bar, where I 
was sitting. I looked upon him as one I had known before. I had 
read his life of Patrick Henry, his British Spy, his speech against 
Aaron Burr before Chief Justice Marshall. I had walked over, and 
seen Blannerhassett's Island, in the Ohio river, as it really was in 
1817, and I had read it converted into classic grounds by the magic 
power of his pen. In person Mr. Wirt was much above the ordinary size 
of men. His face might be cast in the same mold with Thomas H. 
Benton's — the eye, the nose, the forehead, the chin, the mouth, indeed 
the whole bust of these distinguished men was very much alike, as I 
thought at the time I saw them together. 

The Chief Justice called a case in which Mr. Ogden, of New York, 
was counsel for the plaintiff in error, and Hugh Lawson White, of 
Tennessee, for the defendant. Mr. Ogden was absent. Judge Mar- 
shall. — "What will you do with this case, Judge White?" "Mr. 
Ogden is not here and I can take no steps in his absence." " You 
can have the writ of error dismissed." " I am wholly incapable 
of taking advantage of the absence of counsel ; let the case pass until 
Mr. Ogden arrives. I understand from Mr. Foote that he will be 
here in the course of two months." The case was passed ; I was 
struck at the time with the professional coua'tesy of Judge White, 
which I afterward learned was a part of his character. The case 
of the United States vs. 350 chests of tea, was then called, and I 
had an opportunity of hearing William Wirt, Daniel Webster and 
Richard S. Cox. The argument of the case lasted all day. It was 
a great professional treat to me, to hear the eminent lawyers before 
the first judicial tribunal of the world. The case was opened by 
Mr. Wirt. I expected much from him, but I soon found that I was 
looking in the wrong direction for his forensic powers. I anticipated 
when he rose that tropes and figures, classic allusions, beautiful say- 
ings and high-toned eloquence would fall from his lips as he pro- 
ceeded. How different was the William Wirt addressing the Court. 
He commenced by distinctly stating the case in all its minutias, treat- 
ing the Court as if they were entirely ignorant of the facts. When 
he had done with the statement, to which the Court gave the most 
profound attention, he made his legal points briefly, distinctly, and 
then took up the argument — reading and commenting upon his 
authorities as he went. His language was plain ; his argument 



140 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

strong. Mr. Webster and Mr. Cox sat taking notes. The William 
Wirt of the " British Spy " was not there in that argument. 

Mr. Richard S. Cox followed in an argument of some two hours, 
showing that he had made himself master of the case. He spoke 
with eloquence and power, meeting and combatting the authorities 
of Mr. Wirt, as I thought, successfully. 

Mr. Webster followed Mr. Cox. It was the first time I had ever 
heard that great man. He was then in the pride of his years, and 
to say that he came fully up to my expectations would not do justice 
to the idea I wish to convey. It was the clearest and most powerful 
law argument I have ever heard to this day. The powers of his mind 
were brought to bear upon a full preparation. Like Mr. Wirt, his 
manner was plain ; no flourish of language ; no attempt at eloquence ; 
his power was in his thorough knowledge of his subject and the dis- 
tinctness with which he stated his position. He spoke over two hours, 
and was followed in the close by Mr. Wirt, in a speech of much greater 
power than his first efi"ort. The argument over, court adjourned, and 
I returned to my room highly pleased with my first day in the 
Supreme Court of the United States. 



SENATORIAL ELECTION. 141 



[Monday Morning, September 14, 1857. 

SENATORIAL ELECTION, 1836. 

The August election of 1836, for Senators and Representatives, 
had resulted in a decided majority on joint ballot against the Demo- 
cratic party. There was to be a United States Senator elected by the 
nest Legislature to succeed Gov. Hendricks, whose term was about to 
expire. Gov. Hendricks and Gov. Noah Noble were supposed to be 
the prominent candidates of the two parties. Gov. Boone was a can- 
didate, and my name was spoken of. Previous to the meeting of the 
Assembly I had seen my Whitewater friends, and ascertained that 
they would stand by me in solid phalanx. I had counted my reliable 
strength and found it to be only thirty-five out of a joint body of one 
hundred and fifty, but I believed the friends of Gov. Noble and Gov. 
Hendricks could not coalesce. jMy hopes were that the friends of 
Gov. Hendricks, would, in the end, prefer me to Gov. Noble, and 
unite with my friends and control the election. The Legislature met 
on the first Monday in December. Lieut. Gov. David Wallace, Presi- 
dent of the Senate, Charles H. Test, Secretary. In the House, Caleb 
B. Smith was elected Speaker, receiving 84 votes, and Jehu T. Elliott, 
principal Clerk. The sixth day of December, 1836, arrived. Gover- 
nors Hendricks and Boone were at Washington, Gov. Noble in his 
room near the Hall. I was seated in the lobby of the House. The 
Joint Convention met. The Journal of the House says : 

" The Senate came in from their chamber and took their seats on 
the right of the Speaker's chair, the President of the Senate on the 
right of the Speaker, when both houses of the General Assembly 
proceeded to the election of a United States' Senator to fill the vacan- 
cy of the Hon. William Plendricks, whose term of service expires on 
the 3d day of March next. Mr. Vawter acting as teller on the part 
of the Senate, and Mr. Evans acting as teller on the part of the 
House. 

bh to bb fcb b'o ih fcb iC b'o 

*4j '-t3 '-2 '-S '43 '-Hi '-3 *-(Ij '-lij 

ooooooooo 

CANDIDATES. ^^^^^^^^^ 

i-l(MIOrt^iOOt--OOC5 

Noah Noble 50 49 55 60 65 58 59 64 63 

William Hendricks ..41 41 47 50 40 37 25 6 1 

Oliver H.Smith 35 41 35 34 38 44 57 73 79 

Ratlifi'e Boone 22 12 9 3 3 6 5 3 3 

Tilghman A. Howard 1 



142 EARLY lA^DIANA TEIALS. 

" Oliver H. Smitli having received a majority of all the votes given, 
was, by the President of the Senate, in the presence of both Houses 
of the General Assembly, declared duly elected United States Senator 
for the State of Indiana, for and during the term of six years from 
and after the fourth day of March, 1837." 

It will be seen by the balloting that my thirty-five friends stood by 
me, except on the fourth ballot, when I fell off to thirty -four. This 
brought on the crisis between Gov. Noble and myself The friends 
of Gov. Hendricks believed that if I went down, Gov. Noble would 
rise. The night previous to the election, I was lying on my bed at 
Browns when a member came into the room and asked me to get up 
and go to a room in Browning's Hotel. General Noble had been 
there. I remarked " All right, my friends are all generals."' About 
one o'clock at night my devoted friend, the young Speaker, Caleb B. 
Smith, came to my room and informed me that Richard W. Thomp- 
son, Thomas Dowling, James Collins, and other leading friends of 
Gov. Noble, had proposed to hold a caucus of our friends to select 
which one of us should be. the candidate against Gov. Hendricks. 
"Please say to those gentlemen, that I am a candidate for United 
States Senator before the Legislature, and not before any caucus of 
the members." He left the room and soon returned. " The friends 
of Gov. Noble now propose to leave it to the first ballot to decide 
the question ; if he has a larger vote than you on the first ballot your 
friends will go to him, and elect him on the second ballot ; if you 
shall have the most votes on the first ballot then his friends will go to 
you and elect you on the second." •' Will you please say to those 
gentlemen, as my answer to the proposition, that I leave it the last 
ballot, whoever shall have the majority of all the votes cast on the 
last ballot will be the Senator, I desire no further proposition on the 
subject." Thus ended the matter. The election came on and resulted 
as stated. 

I shall always gratefully remember my friends on that trying occa- 
sion, and especially the fact that upon every ballot I received every 
vote from my Congressional District without distinction of party ; 
that among my warmest and most valued friends, through the whole 
exciting contest, I can name my first landlord, at Conncrsville, New- 
ton Claypool, then a State Senator, and my two law students who had 
been members of my family, Jonathan A. Liston of the Senate, and 
Caleb B. Smith, Speaker of the House of Representatives. The 
General Assembly, that session, was composed of the first men of the 
State. Gov. Noble numbered among his friends many of tl;c most 
talented of both Houses, Richard W. Thompson, Thomas Dcwling, 



SENATORIAL ELECTION. 143 

Enoch McCarty, Ftobert Dale Owen, Austin W. Morris, James Collins, 
Othniel L. Clark, David Guard, Henry P. Thornton, William T. T. 
Jones, John Beard, John Dumont, Daniel Seigler, John Walker, 
John Vawter, David H. Colerick and others. My friends were equally 
talented. I name, Newton Claypool, William Watt, Caleb B. Smith, 
Robert Hanna, Henry Brady, Marks Crume, William H. Bennett, 
Thomas D. Walpole, David oNIacy, Austin M. Puett, George K. Steel, 
Lett Bloomfield, John H. Cook, Richard J. Hubbard, Benjamin F. 
Reeve, Jonathan A. Liston, Daniel Mace, Thomas Gale, Thomas D. 
Baird, Thomas Pi.. Stanford, AVilliam Elliott, Abner M. Bradbury. 

Of the distinguished friends of Gov. Hendricks who came over to 
my support, and to whom, with my original friends, I finally owed my 
election, I gratefully name, David Hill is, George Boone, Samuel 
Chambers, Thomas Smith, David W. Daily, David M. Dobson, Paris 
C. Dunning, Samuel Milroy, Milton Stapp, Abel C. Pepper, John 
P. Dunn, Joseph A. Wright, Delana R. Eekles, Joel Vandeveer, Wil- 
liam Marshall, Joel Long, Gen. Depaw and George W. Ewing. 

The election over, the convention adjourned "without day." The 
members left the hall in a bustle. I lost my hat and walked up to 
my room bare-headed. The next night, early, the long room of Mr. 
Brown's hotel was crowded; they had a joyous time, in which 1 was 
most happy to see the friends of my competitors participating. The 
next morning I left for home on my horse ; the road was almost im- 
passable. I arrived at home the second night, and the next morning 
followed on the trail of five hundred hogs, that I had fed in my own 
cornfield, on my Whitewater farms. Late in the evening I reached 
Henrie's Mansion House in Cincinnati, covered with mud. There 
were many inquiries about the result of our Senatorial election ; I 
was asked if there had been an election. " Which is elected, Hen- 
dricks, or Noble?" " Neither." " Who then can it be? " " I am 
elected." "You! What is your name?" "Oliver H. Smith." 
" You elected a United States Senator! I never heard of you before." 
" Very likely." The next day I sold my hogs to Graham & Shultz, 
for seven dollars per hundred, received over seven thousand dollars 
cash and two days after was at home with my family. 



144 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 



[Tuesday Mornino, September 15, 1857. 

SUPREME COURT OF INDIANA. 

The Supreme Court met at Corydon in May, 1817. Judges Scott, 
Holman and Johnson on the bench. There were at that term but two 
cases, on motion before the Court. The first motion was made by 
Reuben Kidder, and the other by my distinguished colleague in Con- 
gress, Thomas H. Blake, whom I shall notice again before these 
sketches close. The second term was held in the fall of the same year 
— Judges Scott, Holman and Blackford on the bench. Three cases 
only were decided, one by each of the judges. I mention these facts 
for the comparison by the bar of the business then, before the highest 
judicial tribunal of the State, and the 800 causes now on the docket 
of the Supreme Court. Then, as now, the jurisdiction of the Supreme 
Court was only appellate, and the state of the docket then, as now, 
indicated the business before the lower courts. The spirit of change 
ultimately attacked the bench ; there was no objection to the old 
judges ; they had the confidence of the bar and the public in a high 
degree. The reports of their decisions stood even higher than those 
of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and were held as good authority in 
most of the States. Gov. Ray, soon after his election, let it be 
known that there would be a change upon the Supreme bench. At 
that time the judges of the Supreme Court were " appointed by the 
Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." The 
circuit judges were elected by the Legislature. 

Soon after the inauguration of Gov. Ray, I was offered a seat 
on the bench, but having no judicial ambition, and not being willing 
to be laid on the bench at a salary of 700 dollars, I had the fortitude 
to resist the temptation, and Gen. John T. 3IcKinney, Col. Stephen 
C. Stevens, and Judge Blackford were nominated to the new bench, 
and confirmed ultimately by the Senate. Many Senators strongly 
objected to the change, and at first refused to confirm the nominees, 
in the vain hope of forcing the Governor to nominate the old judges. 
Judge Blackford at the time, I presume, believed he was nominated 
because of his superior qualifications. But it was not to that circum- 
stance he owed his continuance on the bench, biit to the fact that he 
had been the ixnsuccessful competitor of Gov. Ray, and the Gov- 
ernor thought he could make friends in the Blackford ranks by nom- 
inating him. I have already sketched my opinion of Judge Black- 
ford. 



SKETCHES OF SUPREME JUDGES. 145 

SKETCHES OF SUPREME JUDGES. 

Gen. McKinney was a fair lawyer, and gave good satisfaction 
as a judge, but died before he had reached the meridian of his life, 
or had been long enough on the bench to fully develop his judicial 
character. His opinions in Blackford's Reports are sound law. 

Col. Stevens stood high at the bar, was one of the strongest advo- 
cates in the State, but the diffusiveness of his opinions supplied too 
many obiter dicta for other cases, in the opinion of many sound mem- 
bers of the bar. He was one of the most laborious judges upon the 
bench, and furnished Blackford's Reports with many valuable opin- 
ions. Judge Stevens resigned his seat upon the bench to return to 
the practice, in which he was perfectly at home, where I leave him. 

Charles Dewey, one of the oldest and best lawyers of the State, 
no'w took a seat on the bench. The Judge brought with him a 
matured mind, and a large experience as a practitioner. Many doubted 
at the time, whether he could sustain on the bench his high reputa- 
tion at the bar. But, as his judicial powers were developed, he rose 
as a judge and fully sustained himself in the opinion of the bar, who 
are good judges and safe depositories of the judicial reputations of 
the judges. Many of Jtidge Dewey's opinions will be found in 
Blackford's Reports. He was dropped from the bench, with Judge 
Jeremiah Su.llivan, by Gov. Whitcomb, and Samuel K. Perkins and 
Thomas L. Smith appointed, with Judge Blackford, to the new bench. 

Judge Sullivan stood deservedly high at the bar. He was a fine 
lawyer of many years standing, in one of the first schools of practice 
of the State. The purity of his life and character gave him a reputa- 
tion when he took his seat upon the bench, that stamped his opinions 
with high authority. He retired from the bench to his practice, in 
the meridian of life. Many of his valuable opinions are reported by 
Judge Blackford in his volumes. 

Judge Perkins went upon the bench when he was quite a young 
man, and but little known beyond his Richmond locality, as a lawyer. 
I had seen him a few times, but had no special acquaintance with him. 
He was, however, well and intimately known to Gov. Whitcomb, from 
Avhom he received his first appointment. The Judge brought to the 
bench a sound discriminating mind, untiring energy, industry and 
strict integrity. His character as a judge was molded very much 
by those of Judges Blackford and Dewey, with whom he was first 
associated. His close application and great research into authorities, 
soon placed him high on the bench, where he has continued to labor 
since he took his seat, with an ardor and laudable ambition, that has 
proved almost too much for his feeble constitution. Many of his 
10 



146 EAELY i:n^diaxa trials. 

opinions will be found in our reports. It is not my purpose to approve 
or disapprove of the decisions of the Supreme Court ; they are reported, 
and speak for themselves. It is proper, however, that I should remark 
that the immense docket, with the change of the practice act, break- 
ing down all the old land marks between common law and equity, and 
repudiating the forms of pleading with which the Courts were familiar, 
have made the labor and difficulties of the judges of the Supreme 
Court a hundred-fold greater at this day than they were under the old, 
settled practice, when the Court could look to precedents for their 
decisions. 

Judge Smith was considered a good lawyer when he was appointed 
to the bench. He was possessed by nature, of a strong, clear and 
vigorous intellect, well improved by reading. The Judge maintained 
a high reputation on the bench. Many of his decisions compare 
favorably, both in manner and legal accuracy, with those of his eon- 
temporaries. He delivered the opinion of the Court in the great 
case of the State of Indiana, against the Vincennes University in 
error. The decision was afterward reversed by the majority of the 
judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, but Chief Justice 
Taney, and the minority of the Court, concurred fully Avith the opin- 
ion of the Supreme Court of Indiana, pronounced by Judge Smith. 
The Judge has returned to his practice, and is discharging the duties 
of attorney for the new Bank of the State. 

Judge Davisson brought to the bench a long and ripe experience 
at the bar, with a good mind and great industry. The Judge is in the 
meridian of life, and is rising rapidly in public estimation as a jurist. 
His opinions, as reported, are well expressed, and show much research 
into authorities. 

Judge Hovey was one of the youngest men that has been placed 
upon the bench. He was a good lawyer, and although not long enough 
upon the bench to establish his character fully as a judge, his opin- 
ions, as reported, show that he possessed judicial powers of no ordin- 
ary character. Judge Hovey was a member of our late Constitutional 
Convention, and is now District Attorney of the United States. 

Judge Stuart came to the bench from a heavy practice, and 
brought with him much experience. His mind is of a high order. 
He is a close thinker, stands well as a judge, and has given many 
important decisions, reported in our volumes of Reports, but I think 
he labors too much in the bark of his eases, sometimes stopping short 
of the merits. 

Judge Roache was quite a young man when he came to the bench. 
He brought with him a good character as a lawyer. But he was not 



UNITED STATES COURT. 147 

long enougli on the beneli to develop his judicial character. His 
opinions, however, read well, showing that he possessed the qualifica- 
tions to make a first-rate judge. 

Judge G-ookins came to the bench directly from a large practice, 
and brought with him an enviable character for legal learning. His 
mind was of a high order, clear, strong and concentrative. Many of 
his opinions will be found in our reports. He is yet in the prime of 
life, and must rise still higher in public estimation. 



UNITED STATES COURT. 

Judge Benjamin Parke, first Judge of the District Court of the 
United States, was a fair, but not a great lawyer. His honest mind 
seemed to look through the technicalities of the case, and seize the 
merits almost without an effort. His kind and courteous manner and 
the respect with which he treated the bar, made him loved and res- 
pected by all. After his decease. Judge Holman was appointed to fill 
the vacancy. He made a first-rate judge ; patient, courteous and kind 
in the discharge of his official duties. 

Judge Elisha M. Huntington, then comparatively a young man. 
Commissioner of the General Land Office, was nominated by Presi- 
dent Tyler, to fill the vacancy, on the decease of Judge Holman, and 
was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. I was a member of the 
body at that time. Judge Huntington has discharged the duties of 
the office to the entire satisfaction of the bar. His mind is of a high 
order, his judgment good, and his courtesy to the bar such as to make 
him highly esteemed by all. Long may he live, say the bar of Indi- 
ana, one and all, so far as I have ever heard. 

I need not say to the reader that these are only intended for " char- 
coal sketches," and not for finished portraits of these distinguished 
men. 



148 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 



[Saturday Morning, September 19, 1857. 

JOHN TYLER. 

How shall I sketch John Tyler ? How shall I condense his brief 
history? Mr. Tyler is a part of the history of the country. His 
biography is written on the minds of the people. He stands out in 
bold relief on the promontory of his time, a warning to all ambitious 
aspirants, while, at the same time, he furnishes a strong illustration of 
the patriotism of all parties, which induced them to sustain an 
Executive, in whom no party had confidence, and who was repudiated 
by all parties. He stands alone, since the Revolution, a solitary 
monument of his own perfidy and disgrace. To the credit of the 
statesmen and politicians of the United- States, he has no compeer in 
high places. John Tyler was not entirely unknown in Vii'ginia, he 
had been Governor and a United States Senator, when by some strange 
fatality he was elected at the Harrisburgh Convention for Vice- 
President, and put upon the Whig National ticket with Gen. Harrison. 
I was at Washington at the time, but was never able to learn why he 
was thought of, unless it was because he had left Gen. Jackson, and 
it was supposed that he would give strength to the cause in Virginia. 

If such were the inducements of his nomination, a greater mistake 
was never made. His State was one of the few that went largely against 
the ticket, and he proved recreant to the party that took him up and 
elected him the moment a good opportunity offered. It is not my 
purpose to review the memorable contest of 1840 for President, which 
resulted in the election of Gen. Harrison over Mr. Van Buren. That 
is a part of the recorded history of the country. It was one of the 
warmest political struggles, resulting in the most signal party triumph 
that was ever achieved in the United States. I was in the midst of 
the contest, riding and speaking day and night, to the assembled 
thousands. The dying thunders of the campaign, and the shouts of 
victory, had scarcely ceased, when we met at the City of Washington, 
on the 4tli of March, 1841, to inaugurate Gen. Harrison as President, 
and Mr. Tyler as Vice-president, of the United States. The horn- 
arrived. The Senators were all in their seats when Gen. Harrison 
entered the chamber, and took his seat in front of the Secretary's desk, 
followed by the representatives of foreign nations, Judges of the 
Supreme Court, members of the House and crowds of citizens. Gen. 
Harrison appeared more infirm than when I had last seen him at North 
Bend. The General was a small, slim, spare man, some five feet ten 
inches high, long, bony, narrow face, dark hair, falling carelessly over 
his forehead, dark eyes, and dressed in a plain cloth surtout coat. 



JOHN TYLER. 149 

His manner was graceful and easy as he bowed, and took his seat. 
Mr. Tyler was taller than the General, slim and spare, narrow forehead, 
long, hooked, high-bridged nose, projecting chin, wide mouth, long 
neck and small, narrow head. His countenance indicated to me, the 
moment I first saw him, the character of the man, about a medium 
Virginia politician, since the days of the giants have passed away from 
that ancient commonwealth. The inauguration took place from the 
east front of the capitol. The assemblage was immense, much larger 
than those on the occasions of Gen. Jackson's and Mr. Van Buren's 
inaugurations ; both of which I had witnessed. Gen. Harrison read 
his address in a loud, clear voice. As he came to that part which spoke 
of the policy to be observed in our foreign relations, he turned and 
bowed to the foreign ministers, which they courteously returned. 
The scene was very imposing. The address closed ; Chief Justice 
Taney administered the oath. The crowd dispersed. We returned 
to the Senate Chamber ; Mr. Tyler took his seat, having been sworn 
into office previously ; the Senate adjourned. Next day at twelve 
o'clock we met in executive session, received and unanimously 
confirmed the nominations of the Cabinet; Daniel Webster, Secretary 
of State, Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Treasury, John Bell, Secre- 
tary of War, George E. Badger, Secretary of the Navy, Francis 
Granger, Postmaster General, and John J. Crittenden, Attorney 
General. Never was a Cabinet more highly approved by the Whigs. 
Indeed our opponents conceded their ability, and the whole country 
acknowledged that the Whig party and its principles would be faithfully 
represented in the executive branch of the Government, while the 
same party had a large majority in the House of Representatives and 
Senate, as the election of Speaker and committees showed. The Whigs 
elected the chairmen of all their committees in the Senate. I was elected 
chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, by a decided vote over 
Robert J. Walker, the late chairman. There was little other business 
done at the executive session. We adjourned, with the understanding 
that there would be a called session during vacation. I called on the 
President elect ; met Mr. Tyler there ; all things looked right. I 
took leave of both and returned home, bringing with me to our Whig 
friends the gratifying news of the harmonious and able cabinet that 
was installed into office, and of the decided working majority of the 
party in both Houses of the next Congress. Soon after my return I 
received the proclamation of the President calling a session of Congress 
to convene on the 21st of May. The proclamation bore date March 
17th. How uncertain are all human prospects ! how frail this earthly 
tenement! I left Gen. Harrison well, in fine health, with a ixveen old 



150 EAELY INDIA^^A TEIALS. 

age upon him, on the lOtli of the month; before its close, he was 
stricken by a fatal disease, and on the 4th of April, just one month 
after he was inaugurated, he was gathered to his fathers. His body 
was borne in solemn procession over the mountains, to his last earthly 
resting-place, at North Bend, on the Ohio river, five miles above the 
mouth of the Miami, where the passenger on the steamer as he looks 
to the Indiana shore, may see the white tomb, on the high ground of 
a beautiful grove, surrounded by a plain white fence. There sleeps 
the body of Gen. Harrison ; the beloved of the West ; the true patriot 
and brave man. — Peace to his ashes ! 

The extra session came, and with it political treason in high places. 
It has been asked a thousand times, and will continue to be while 
history records the deed, why was it that John Tyler turned against 
the party that elected him? Why did he reward confidence with 
treachery ? Why forsake the standard that had waved over his head 
when he marched, by the side of the hero of Tippecanoe, to triumph 
and victory ? Had Gen. Harrison lived to serve his time, would Mr. 
Tyler have deserted him as he did Gen. Jackson ? Was it principle 
growing out of the bank question that caused him to turn round upon 
the party that elected him ? These and other questions have been 
asked, again and again, in my presence. The facts have never been 
controverted, but the cause that produced them has been subject to 
many opinions. I have had but one upon the subject. Had Gen. 
Harrison lived Mr. Tyler would never have forsaken him. The motive 
would have been wanting. He had left Gen. Jackson and the Dem- 
ocratic party, and had nothing to expect from that party. He had 
no temptation to break his faith with the Whig party until Gen. 
Harrison died, and he had succeeded to the Presidential chair, nor do 
I believe he had the most remote idea of cutting loose from the party 
that elected him, and of setting up for himself, until the meeting of 
the extra session. He and his Cabinet were united and harmonious 
up to that time, and, as I have already said, a truer set of Whigs the 
party did not hold, than this Cabinet, Was it the bank question that 
caused him to leave his party ? I answer, no ; that was one of the 
pretexts only ; the celebrated letter of Mr. Botts was another. " What 
then was the cause?" I will be asked. I answer, the cause was that 
Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, was not selected for speaker in place of 
John White, of Kentucky, by the Whig caucus. Henry Clay was 
unjustly suspected of producing this result. Mr Wise had been up 
to that event, from the very first, one of the most violent of all the 
Whig politicians of the United States. It was he who gave the 
celebrated toast, that went the rounds of the Whig press, " The union 



JOHN TYLER. 151 

of the Wlaigs, for the sake of the Union." He had been, during the 
contest, with other chivah'ous spirits of the South, who had taken 
conservative grounds, in the front of the great political battle that had 
just terminated in the most triumphant and overwhelming victory in 
the annals of our country. It is natural that he should have looked 
to the Speaker's chair, as due to his efforts in the Whig cause, and for 
which he was admitted to be eminently qualified. John White, of 
Kentucky, was elected over him by the Whigs. I was there at the 
time, and without any preference individually, as between Mr. Wise 
and Mr. White, I regretted the choice on party grounds. Mr Wise 
was perhaps the only Whig in the House who had Tyler proclivities. 
It is proper that I should introduce Mr. Wise here more directly to 
the reader. He was a spare, slim man, under the common hight, 
large head, brown hair, hanging on his shoulders, parted on the sides, 
falling carelessly over his high forehead, remarkably large mouth, dark, 
piercing eyes ; he dressed plainly, generally wore a black frock coat. 
Mr. Wise possessed talents of a high order, with debating powers among 
the very first in the House. He was an ardent, impulsive, and some- 
times vehement speaker, very characteristic of the Virginia and 
Southern school. He was the man to mold John Tyler, a Virginian. 
The private and political friend of Mr. Tyler, he had with him left the 
Jackson standard, and gone over to the opposition. Possessing a 
mind in every respect superior to Mr. Tyler, with a full knowledge of 
his weak points, goaded on by disappointed ambition, suspicious of 
Mr. Clay, and with the probable political prospects before him, he 
thought to establish a Tyler dynasty upon the ruins of the Whig party, 
and such additions from the Democratic party as might be allured from 
their allegiance by the " loaves and fishes " of the " rising sun." 

Mr. Tyler, in my opinion, was but an instrument in the hands of 
Mr. Wise, the superior Virginian. Mr. Wise had, in the instrument 
before him, one string upon which he could play, sure of harmonious 
sounds, the vanity of John Tyler. He was aware that Mr. Tyler, 
during the campaign, while seated on the popularity of General HaiTi- 
son, deluded himself with the idea of his own importance, like the 
prairie fly, safely nestled in the shaggy mane of the bounding buffalo, 
pursued by a flying band of Camanches, which imagines itself the 
object of the pursuit, and feels able to leave the noble animal and take 
care of itself at any moment. Mr. Tyler was vanity itself Mr. Wise 
had only to play upon that string, to hold up the perpetuation of the 
Tyler dynasty in the succession of Mr. Tyler to the Presidential chair. 
This could not succeed while Henry Clay stood first — the acknowl- 
edged leader of the Whig party. Mr. Tyler must cut loose from Mr. 



152 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Clay and set up for himself. Congress was in session. The measures 
of the Whig party were well known to both 3Ir. Tyler and Mr. Wise. 
That they would be proposed by the leaders of the Whig party was as 
well known before as after their introduction. — Among them was the 
question of a National Bank. Here was the first pretext, no doubt 
anxiously looked for by the leaders of the Tyler movement. I do not 
mean to confine that deep-laid scheme to Henry A. Wise alone; far 
from it. There were Cushing, Wise, Upshur, Gilmer, Irwin Spencer, 
Profiitt, and others known to the country as " the Corporal's Guard," 
who played upon the same instrument, flattered Tyler's vanity, inflated 
his self-importance, and ministered to his delusion. 

Before any bank bill had passed either House, I happened at the 
White House one evening. There were few in the audience-room. Mr. 
Tyler was promenading arm in arm with two Democratic Western Sena- 
tors, Mr. Tappan and Mr. Allen. I sat cjuietly on a side sofii, noticing 
their movements. The conversation appeared earnest, with such nods 
and gestures as satisfied me as to what we had to look for. I left, and 
on the way to my boarding-house, on C. street, I called at Mr. Clay's 
room. He was alone. The moment I was seated he asked me if there 
was any news. — " Yes, Mr. Clay, I stopped to tell you that Mr. Tyler 
will go over to the Democratic party." " How do you know? Did 
he say so, or did anybody tell you so ? " " Neither." I then told 
him what I had seen. '■ Strong symptoms, Mr. Smith, but it can not 
be possible that after all we have done for him he will desert us." 
"You will see." So he did see. The first bank bill was passed and 
received the veto of Mr. Tyler. Many of the leaders of our party 
attributed it to his Constitutional scruples. I did not. Mr. Webster 
and Mr. Ewing gave our party strong assurances that Mr. Tyler would 
approve of a bill modified in some particulars. It was thought best 
on party grounds, to yield to his whims without departing from prin- 
ciples. Another bill was carefully drawn, and submitted to him in 
advance, so as to insure his signature. He kept it several days, modi- 
fied, corrected and interlined it with his own hand, and handed it back 
to the committee of the party as entirely satisfactory to him, and faith- 
fully promised to approve it. 

I met Mr. Berrien next morning and asked him if he thought the 
President would approve the bill, if we passed it. " I think so, but 
let us pass it as it came from his hands, and he can not veto it." " This 
is all gammon on his part ; he never will approve of it, or of any other 
bill of the kind that will hold him in public opinion longer identified 
with Henry Clay." And the result proved that I was correct. While 
the bill was pending, Mr. Botts wrote his foolish letter to " head Cap- 



JOHN TYLEE. 153 

tain Tyler or die," wliicli was seized upon witli avidity, by Mr. Tyler 
and his friends, as another pretext for his veto. Some pretended to 
believe that the letter had something to do with his course. I do not 
believe one word of it. His course was settled the day after Mr. Wise 
was rejected by the Whigs, and John White selected for Speaker. 
Bank bill, or no bank bill, Botts letter, or no Botts letter, he was lost 
to the Whig party. The bill he had interlined with his own hand, 
and passed without changing a letter, after the reflections of the Sab- 
bath day, shared the same fate with the other. A veto followed. 
The eyes of the whole Whig party were opened. Mr. Tyler and his 
guard were seen fortifying themselves, by the Executive offices and 
patronage, in their little circle around their Chief, to become as they 
vainly imagined, the nucleus of the great Tyler part}' that was to be. 
All was joy in the Democratic ranks. Not at the defection of Mr. 
Tyler aloue, but at the anticipated efiects of the treason on the Whig 
party. On the other hand, the Whigs were deeply affected. They 
saw all their hopes blasted, the labors of the campaign lost, the Exec- 
utive department, and its co-operation, torn from them by the perfidy 
of the man they had elected. There were but two courses to be pur- 
sued. The one was to stand still, and let Mr. Tyler and his allies 
govern the great Whig party and control its action, while the respon- 
sibility of the administration would rest upon them in the national 
mind. And the other was to cut loose from the Executive, and repu- 
diate all responsibility for his acts. The latter course met the approval 
of the whole party, except a very few, who had tasted, or were looking 
for, the crumbs that fall from the Executive table, small and great. 
The Whig manifesto followed. I was honored by being associated 
with John Mc Pherson Berrien, and Nathaniel P. Talmadge, of the 
Senate, as the Committee of the Whigs of that body. Horace Everett, 
of Vermont, Sampson Mason, of Ohio, John P. Kennedy, of Mary- 
land, John C. Clark, of New York, and Kenneth Rayner, of North 
Carolina, acted as the Committee of the House. The Joint Committee 
reported the manifesto to a mass meeting of the Whigs of both Houses. 
Many speeches were made by distinguished Whigs, a sketch even of 
which I have not space to record, among which were two of uncommon 
power, the one from Millard Fillmore, and the other from Thomas 
F. Marshall. The vote was taken, — the manifesto adopted without a 
dissenting sound, that I heard. 

Two days after the second veto all the Cabinet resigned, except Mr. 
Webster, Secretary of State, who retained his position, for reasons 
satisfactory to himself at the time, no doubt, but which were far from 
being so to the Whig party, and which even Mr. Webster had to abandon 



154 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

at a subsequent period, and give place to Mr. Callioun, not how- 
ever, until after lie liad made his Faneuil Hall Speech, which, for his 
sake, I always regretted. The most of the Tylerites soon made their 
appearance in the executive nominations to our body for high office, 
and were all promptly rejected, neither party having any confidence 
in Mr. Tyler or his nominees. Mr. Wise was nominated for Minister 
to France, I voted against him with much reluctance. Had he been 
nominated to any other Court, even by President Tyler, I should have 
voted for him. Our relations at that time with France were of an 
inflammable character, and I thought Mr. Wise was not the man for 
that Court. During the extra session it was given out that Governor 
Bagby, of Alabama, would on a certain day show up the Whig party 
in its true light. At an early hour the galleries and side sofas of the 
Senate were filled. Judge Upsur, Gilmer, Cushing, Wise, Irwin, Proffit, 
Robert and John Tyler, Jr., in front and around the Governor as he 
rose from the seat next to Col. Benton. Gov. Bagby, was of the large 
size of men, fine features, bald head, strong, musical voice, and withal, 
one of the severest tongues in the Senate, exceedingly sarcastic and 
bitter, and yet pleasant in his social intercourse. As we all expected 
the Governor commenced upon the Whig party. 1 was sitting at the 
time directly before him, looking him in the face. He said all and 
more than all that I had ever heard from any other source, against the 
party to which I belonged, to the infinite delight, visible and unre- 
strained, of all the Tylerites present. He had worked himself up to a 
fine strain of impassioned eloquence, when looking in my face, at the 
highest pitch of his strong voice, " Why don't you Whigs keep your 
promises to the American people. I pause for an answer." I said, 
" Because your President won't let us." He leaned back against the 
railing, paused a moment, and then in the most contemptuous manner 
exclaimed, " Our President ! our President ! Do you think we would 
go to the most corrupt party that was ever formed in the United States 
and then take the meanest renegade that ever left that party for our 
President? " From that moment the Whig party was lost sight of and 
Mr. Tyler became the text for the balance of the discourse. The seats 
of the Tylerites were vacated in a few minutes, aud their occupants 
were seen leaving the chamber, any thing but smiles resting upon their 
countenances. The session was about to close, when I called into the 
Vice President's room near midnight to get a nomination of a land 
officer for a vacant office. I found Mr. Tyler seated at the table and 
Mr. Webster sitting beside him. The other Cabinet officers had resigned. 
I was received formally, but coolly. Mr. Tyler looked uncomfortable, 
and Mr. Webster appeared ill at ease in his position. I staid but a 



JOHN TYLER. 155 

moment and returned to the chamber, then in executive session. The 
nominations were fast falling on the President's desk, and as they 
were announced over and over again, as promptly rejected. Gushing, 
Wise, Spencer followed each other in rapid order, and were each retur- 
ned with the message, " We do not advise and consent to the nomina- 
tion." Congress adjourned. The Tyler convention of his office-hold- 
ers and aspirants for office under him, was held at Baltimore, Mr. 
Tyler was unanimously nominated for re-election. The nomination 
fell still born. Not a State formed an electoral ticket for him. Long- 
before the Presidential election, Mr. Wise was leading the Democratic 
forces against his late brethren, but poor Tyler was left shivering at 
the door of the party, with the voice of the watchman, " We know you 
not," ringing in his ears. 

" Who would rise in brightest day, 
To set without one parting ray ? " 



156 EAELY INDIAIN^A TRIALS. 



[Monday Morxixg, September 21, 1857. 

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 

A FEW years since I visited tlie Supreme Court a second time. 
What a change since I first saw that dignified tribunal in the year 1827 ! 
■ The court was in session when I entered and took a seat on the sofa 
in front of the judges. Where were Marshall, Washington, Duvall, 
Thompson, Story, Baldwin, Johnson, Trimble ? Gone in the few 
years of my absence, gone forever ; and there sat in their gowns 
Chief Justice Taney in the chair of Marshall, the young Judge 
Curtis in the seat of Story, Judge Nelson in the chair of Thompson, 
Judge Grier in the seat of Baldwin, Judge Wayne in the place of 
Johnson, Judge McLean in the seat of Trimble, Judge Daniel in 
the place of Washington. Caleb Cushing sat at the tzible of William 
Wirt. Every thing looked strange, except the familiar face of Judge 
McLean, the presiding judge of the Circuit Court of the United 
States for the District of Indiana. 

It is not my purpose to institute a comparison between the judges 
that composed the court in the year 1827, and those of after years. 
The moment my eye struck the bench I said to myself, the two 
strong men are Chief Justice Taney and Judge MoLean. Nature so 
declared. Their powers of mind were stamped upon their faces, and 
their high judicial character distinctly marked itpon the whole external 
man, and yet in person they were not alike. The Chief Justice was 
tall and slender, considerably bent with years, his face deeply furrowed, 
his hair hanging carelessly over his high forehead, which he frequently 
wiped awaj'. His arms and fingers were long and bony, not unlike 
those of John Randolph. His countenance was marked by the 
study of many years. His dress plain black. He sat pen in hand 
attentively listening to Mr. Cushing addressing the Court, frequently 
taking notes, as the argument progressed. Judge McLean sat near 
him; his large head, inclined to baldness, gave him a remarkably 
prominent forehead. In person full six feet, well made, quite fleshy, 
large, expanded chest, features prominent, countenance open and noble. 
I know no living man with whom to compare him. He always reminded 
me of my idea of the appearance of Gen. Washington at the same age. 
The Judge sat quietly listening to the argument, with a printed brief 
in his hand. I looked at these distinguished judges with the highest 
veneration for their age and high judicial standing. I felt that the 
one was Chief Justice, and that the other would grace that high judicial 
position, or any other under our free institution, with credit to him- 
self and honor to the nation. Chief Justice Taney, it was said, 



UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 157 

received his appointment from Gen. Jackson as a reward for his 
services in removing the deposits from the Bank of the United States, 
as required by the President. He was at the time Secretary of the 
Treasury. He was a sound hiwyer of many years practice at Balti- 
more, and a good Catholic, when he was taken into the Cabinet of 
Gen. Jackson. His mind was of a very high order, and bringing with 
him a ripe professional experience, with long reading, he stood at 
once fairly in the judicial shoes of his illustrious predecessor. Judge 
McLean had been many years a member of Congress from Ohio, 
afterward Supreme Judge of that State, when he was transferred 
to the office of Postmaster General of the United States. It may- 
he said with entire confidence that no man ever filled that highly res- 
ponsible office more to the satisfaction of the people of the United States. 
He was respected, feared, and beloved, by contractors and deputy 
post-masters, over the length and breadth of the land. He required 
promptness, diligence, and f;iithfulness of them ; a slight excuse would 
atone for slight errors, but dismissal promptly followed intentional 
neglect or willful unfaithfulness. I was at Washington at the time 
Judge McLean was transferred, by Gen. Jackson, from the Post 
Office Department to the Supreme Bench. It was whispered in 
political circles, at the time, that the Judge had been requested to 
make certain post-office appointments on political grounds, to reward 
partisan services, and had declined to do so, setting up the Jeffer- 
sonian qiialifications as his standard. " Is he honest, is he capable, 
is he faithful to the Constitution ? " The seat on the bench became 
vacant by the death of Judge Trimble. Judge McLean accepted the 
nomination to the bench, and was at once unanimously confirmed. 
His long and invaluable services can only be appreciated by an 
examination of his opinions, in the reports of the Supreme Court, 
and McLean's Circuit Court reports. I have not had an opportunity 
of comparing the Chief Justice with Judge McLean, presiding on 
the circuit, but from his kind, affiible manner of presiding in the 
Supreme Court, I have no doubt of his high character in his circuit. 
Of Judge McLean I may speak from personal observation, having 
practiced in his court, in this State, for the last thirty years. Judge 
McLean on the bench is a model — plain, courteous, affable, dignified, 
patient and prompt. His mind is of a highly comprehensive order, 
always in search of truth, and the merits of the legal controversy ; 
the cobweb forms that are too often interposed by ingenious counsel 
in the path of justice, are swept away by a brush of his judicial mind, 
and the merits of the case seized with a strength that carries con- 
viction with him; his opinions given in a plain, direct manner, are 



158 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

intelligible to the commonest legal mind, more like the decisions of Lord 
Mansfield than any living jurist. With all, his high moral and 
religious character stamp his opinions with great weight upon the 
public mind. 

The high estimation I had been accustomed to place on the opinions 
of these two eminent judges, led me t6 look with deep interest to 
their opinions in the late Dred Scott case. I saw that their local 
positions and political associations would be charged on either side 
of Mason's & Dixon's Line, as influencing their minds and controlling 
their opinions. That is a matter that politicians may dwell upon, but 
with which I have nothing to do, as I expressly eschew politics in 
these sketches. The opinions of Chief Justice Taney and Judge 
McLean in that exciting case are published at large, and have been 
read by the American people. I have neither time, space, nor incli- 
nation to review them. But I do not feel willing to pass the ques- 
tion by without a single word of my own. I give to the judges the 
same unqualified credit for honesty, impartiality and love of country — 
the same determination to confine the judicial functions of the 
Supreme Court of the United States to their Constitutional boun- 
daries ; I strip the case from all outside pressure — all external political 
influences; I seat the judges in their robes upon the bench judicial, 
with the Constitution of the United States and those of the several 
States open before them, and put to them the following questions : 

First, Have the people of the several States the right to adopt their 
own constitution, allowing, or inhibiting slavery, under the provisions 
of the Constitution of the United States ? 

S('C07id, After the constitution of a State is approved by the people, 
and the State is admitted into the Union by Congress, and the act 
of admission has been approved by the President, can either the 
President, Congress, or the Judiciary, interfere with, or annul, any 
of the fundamental principles of the constitution without the assent 
of the people of the State, expressed in the way and manner provided 
in the State constitution ? 

Third, If the Supreme Court has the power to say that slavery may 
exist an hou)' in a State whose constitution prohibits slavery, may it 
not fix the time that slavery may exist in such State ? 

Fourth, If the Supreme Court can say that slavery may exist in a 
State for an hour against the express provisions of the State constitu- 
tion, may it not say, with equal authority, that slavery shall not exist 
in States whose constitutions expressly recognize the institution of 
slavery? Does not the exercise of the power over the subject cross 
Mason and Dixon's line with equal authority, if it exists at all? 



UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT. 159 

Fifth, If the i^osition be true, that the slave carries with him to 
the free States his condition in the slave States, for any other pur- 
pose than that of being reclaimed under the Constitution of the 
United States, when he has escaped without the assent of his master, 
then are not the express provisions of the constitutions of the free 
States inhibiting slavery impliedly repealed, at the will of every slave- 
holder ? 

Let these questions be fairly answered by the reader, let him be a 
slave-holder or non slave-holder, then let him read the opinions of 
Chief Justice Taney and Judge McLean in the Dred Scott case. 



160 EARLY INDIAJsTA TRIALS. 



[Tuesday Morning, September 22, 18-57. 

HORSE-THIEVES-JUDGE CLARK'S MODE OF PRE- 
VENTING NEW TRIALS. 

There are a few more cases that I desire to rescue from the hand 
of time, Yv'hich must soon sweep all others from the recollection of the 
living, before I proceed to sketch more important reminiscences of the 
men and things of my day. 

Indiana was a territory. The country was a wilderness, except a 
few posts and settlements. Fort Harrison, had been successfully 
defended by Gen. Taylor. Gov. Harrison had removed to Vincennes, 
as the executive of the Territory. The country was filled with Indians, 
friendly and hostile, when a gang of desperate horse-thieves from Ken- 
tucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, began to cross the river and 
steal and drive away the horses of the white men and Indians, indis- 
criminately. Gov. Harrison was waited upon, and consulted. The 
settlers were for lynch law and hanging, or at least whipping ; but the 
opinion of the Governor, that the laws should be enforced upon the 
offenders, prevailed, and many thieves were taken and confined, ready 
for the sitting of the Court. At the next term, trial after trial, with 
conviction after conviction, were had, but the attorney for the United 
States was a young, green lawyer, and every conviction was followed 
with successful motions in arrest of judgment for some defect in the 
indictments. The judge being a good lawyer, decided no doubt, cor- 
rectly, according to the written law ; but the decisions gave neither 
protection nor satisfaction to the people. The clamor against the 
Court reached the ears of the judge, and he resigned, when Gen. 
Marston G. Clark, a cousin of Gen. George Rogers Clark, and after- 
ward agent for the Kansas Indians, was by consent appointed judge 
to fill the vacancy on the bench. The General was no lawyer — was 
raised in the woods of Kentucky, where there were no sehoolhouses ; 
could scarcely read a chapter in the Bible, and wrote his name as large 
as John Hancock's in the Declaration of Independence. He was 
about six feet in his stockings, of a very muscular appearance — wore 
a hunting-shirt, leather pants, moccasins and a fox-skin cap, with a 
long cue down his back. Court came on ; Judge Clark on the 
bench. The jail was full of horse-thieves. The penalty was not less 
than thirty-nine lashes on the bare back. The grand-jury returned 
into court indictments against each of the prisoners. Judge Clark. — 
" We will try John Long first, as he seems to be a leader in this busi- 
ness. Bring him into court." Sheriff. — " There he sits; I brought 
him with me." " John Long stand up. You are indicted for stealing 



TURKEY I?s^ COURT AND ON THE TABLE. 161 

an Indian pony; guilty or not guilty ? " Counsel. — " May it please 
the Court, we plead in abatement that his name is John H. Long." 
"That makes no difference; I know the man, and that is sufficient." 
" We then move to quash the indictment before he pleads in chief." 
"State your objections." — ^' First, There is no value of the horse 
laid. — Second, It is charged in the indictment to be a horse, when he 
is a gelding." " I know an Indian pony is worth ten dollars ; and I 
shall consider that a gelding is a horse ; motion overruled." Plea of 
not guilty ; jury impanneled ; evidence heard ; proof positive ; verdict, 
guilty; thirty-nine lashes on his bareback. Counsel.— " We move 
in arrest of judgment, on the ground that it is not charged in the 
indictment that the horse was stolen in the Territory of Indiana." 
" That, I consider a more serious objection than any you have made 
yet. I will consider on it till morning. Sheriff, adjourn the court, 
and keep the pi-isoner safe till court meets." The judge kept his 
seat till the sheriff returned from the jail. "Sheriff", at 12 o'clock 
to-night you and your deputy take Long into the woods, clear out of 
hearing, and give him thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, well laid 
on, put him in jail again ; sai/ nothing, but bring him into court in the 
morning." The order was obeyed to the very letter, and nest morning 
Long was in the box when court opened, his counsel ignorant of what 
had taken place. Judge Clark. — " I have been thinking of the motion 
in arrest in the case of Long ; I have some doubts, as the evidence 
proved that he did steal the horse in this territory, and I think I 
ought not to sustain a motion that I understand will discharge the 
prisoner after he has been found guilty by the jury ; but I feel bound 
to grant a new trial," Long, springing to his feet, " Oh, no, for 
heaven's sake ; I am whipped almost to death already. I discharge my 
attorneys and withdraw their motion." Judge Clark. — " Clerk, enter 
the judgment on the verdict, and mark it satisfied." The other 
prisoners were brought up in succession, and convicted. No motion 
to quash, or in arrest, was afterward made. The prisoners were 
whipped and discharged, carrying with them the news to all their 
comrades. Not a horse was stolen in the territory for years afterward. 



TURKEY IN COURT AND ON THE TABLE. 

In the third circuit our prosecutions were technical, the criminal 
law describing crimes and prescribing punishments, strictly construed, 
and the forms of Chitty's criminal law with the statutory definitions 
adhered to, as I have sometimes thought, beyond the requirements of 
justice. On one occasion I had indicted a man for stealing a horse 

n 



162 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

and the evidence proved the animal to have been a gelding. The 
variance was held fatal on the trial. In another case the indictment 
charged the stealing of a hog, and the evidence proved that the animal 
was dead and dressed, hanging upon the hook. The Court held that 
the variance must defeat a conviction, as it was " pork " and should 
have been so laid, and not a " hog." I had been a good deal annoyed 
with these cases, when there came up for trial a prosecution against a 
man for stealing a turkey of the value of one dollar. The proof was 
that the fowl was dressed, hanging up in the smoke-house of the prose- 
cutor. Judge Eggleston ruled that the variance was fatal on the 
ground that it was " fowl, " and the prisoner was acquitted. Court 
adjourned, and dinner was announced at the hotel. As we entered, I 
saw about the middle of the table a fine, large, roasted turkey, of which 
the Judge was uncommonly fond. It fell upon me that day to carve. 
I had just finished the operation. Judge Eggleston. — " Mr. Smith, 
will you please help my plate to some of that turkey." " To what? " 
'•' A part of the turkey — a wing, a side-bone, or some breast." " Judge, 
I don't know what you mean, I see no turkey, will you have some 
fold ? " The Judge " took, " as the saying is. " Well, Mr. Smith, you 
rather have me, but you must recollect that there is a wide difference 
between a turkey in an indictment, and one on the dinner table." 



PEOMINENT MEN OF EARLY INDIANA. 163 



[Wednesday Morning, Septeaiber 23, 1857. 

PROMINENT MEN OF EARLY INDIANA. 

I AM unable yet to leave for Washington, as there are a few more 
persons that I wish to introduce to the reader as my early friends. 
There lived in early times, near Brookville, two families from which 
sprang individuals of considerable note, known as the McCarty and 
Hanna families. Judge Benjamin McCarty was one of the first 
judges of the county courts under the territorial government. He 
was a man of Herculean frame, and of a strong mind. I barely 
knew him. His two sons, Enoch and Jonathan, I knew well. Enoch 
was a member of the first convention that formed the State Constitu- 
tion ; of the Legislature repeatedly, and many years clerk and judge 
of the Franklin Circuit Court. He was a cool, strong-minded man, 
of the very first standing in society, and contributed largely to the 
mass of mind that controlled early Indiana — cast all his influence on 
the side of morality and religion. Gen. Jonathan McCarty, his 
brother, was one of the most talented men in the State. He was 
defective in education, but had great native powers. He early became 
a politician ; represented the county of Franklin in the Legislature, 
and procured the passage of the law laying off the county of Fayette ; 
soon after which, he removed to the new county, and when I arrived 
at Connersville, in 1820, I found him clerk of the court. Gen. 
McCarty represented his district in Congress for several years with 
ability. As a stump speaker he was ardent and effective ; his person 
was above the medium size ; his head and face of fine mold ; his voice 
strong and clear ; and his action good. At one time he was receiver 
of public moneys at Fort Wayne, but soon voluntarily left his office 
for the more ftiscinating, but less profitable field of politics, and was 
ultimately defeated by Mr. Rariden. He removed from the State to 
Keokuk, Iowa, where he died some years since. The General left 
many warm friends behind him in the Whitewater country. 

Gen. Robert Hanna, of Franklin, was among the very first men in 
early Indiana. He was in person below the common size, strong and 
firmly built up, his head large, his forehead high, his eyes light and 
well set in his head. His walk would point him out as a drill officer 
of the regular army, and his appearance in full uniform at the head 
of his brigade was truly en militaire. The General represented his 
county in the Legislature, and in the Convention of the State that 
formed the Constitution of 1816. On the death of Gen. Noble, he 
was appointed by Gov. Ray to fill the vacancy in the Senate of the 
United States for the balance of the term. He was highly respected 



164 EAELY IXDIAXA TEIALS. 

in that body and voluntarily retired to private life at the close of the 
term, honored and respected by all. 

George H. Dunn, of Lawrenceburg, and James Perry of Liberty, 
■were two of my early friends. They were both fine lawyers, very 
much alike, both well acquainted with their books, both fine special 
pleaders, both under the medium hight. As debaters, the same simi- 
larity was observed. They were neither what we call advocates, whose 
powers control the Court and carry away the jury. If they gained 
their cases, it was because they were on the right side, and they sel- 
dom failed when they were. As commercial and chancery lawyers, 
they ranked high. 

James Rariden I have noticed so frequently, that it seems only 
necessary to say here, that he was one of the strong men of the State. 
He represented Wayne county many years in both branches of the 
General Assembly, was an efiicient member of the last Constitutional 
Convention, and served two terms in Congress from his district. Mr. 
Rariden was for years my circuit companion ; we rode through the wil- 
derness together, ate together, slept together, and were just as near one 
man as two could be. Mr. Rariden was a strong, common-sense man, 
always ready at retort. Pie made no religious pretensions, though he 
said he was " brother-in-law to the Methodist church." During the 
time he was in the House. I was in the Senate. It became necessary 
for the Secretary of State to designate two newspapers in his district 
to publish the laws of the United States. Mr. Forsyth, then Secre- 
tary, wrote to Mr. Rariden to make the selection of " two papers that 
inculcated correct doctrines." Mr. Rariden in answer, " would the 
Secretary consider a paper that supported Gen. Harrison as inculca- 
ting correct doctrines?" Mr. Forsyth. — "I would not." " Then I 
have no recommendation to make." The Presidential election of 1840 
was approaching ; the contest grew warmer and warmer ; both sides 
seemed to be sanguine when by accident Mr. Rariden and Mr. Francis 
P. Blair, then the editor of the Globe, met in the hall of the House 
of Representatives. A bet was proposed by Mr. Blair of one thousand 
dollars that Van Buren would be elected, and one hundred dollars on 
each State that Van Buren would get the electoral vote over Gen. 
Harrison. Rariden promptly took the bet ; stakes to be put up in a 
few days. I happened over in the House when the two parties met. 
Mr. Blair. — " Mr. Rariden, I would rather not bet ; I am the editor of 
the organ of the Government, and it may injure my influence if it is 
known that I bet on the election." " Then you give up, do you? " 
'• I give up that your party can out lie us." " Do you give that up? 
I consider that giving up the election ; that is the only strength your 



IV^EWTOX CLAYPOOL. 165 

party ever had." The bet was carried no further. One day Gen. 
Garrett J). Wall of the Senate asked me to introduce him to Mr. 
Rariden, stating that he wished to bring him over to the Democratic 
party. An opportunity soon offered, and the General remarked, " Mr. 
Rariden, I believe you are an honest man." " That is my character. 
General." " I can not see then why you remain attached to the corrupt 
Whig party." " What better can I do, what corruption do you refer 
to ? " "I refer to the corrupt and false certificates, by which the New 
Jersey members have got their seats." " Are you sure. General, that 
the certificates were false and corrupt?" "I am." Rariden, laugh- 
ing, " That is the first ray of hope I have had for our party, for a 
long time ; there's where we always failed before ; your party has 
beaten us all the time in getting up these spurious certificates. Now 
we seem to have some chance." We parted, and as Gen. Wall and 
myself walked up the avenue, he remarked, " Your friend is the 
most incorrigible man I ever met." Mr. Rariden died within the last 
year. A meeting of the bar was held in the Supreme Court room, 
and I was honored with the solemn duty of presenting the proceed- 
ings to the Supreme Court of the State and the Circuit Court of the 
United States. 



NEWTON CLAYPOOL. 

When I arrived at Connersville, in May of the year 1820, I stop- 
ped at the hotel of Newton Claypool. He was about my age. I had 
been licensed to practice in March before, and was looking for a loca- 
tion. My last dollar had escaped from the top of my pocket. Break- 
fast over, I met Mr. Claypool in the bar-room ; as we met I remarked — 
" Look at me and see whether you will I'isk me for my board a year." 
" Who are you? where did you come from? what is your trade? and 
how do you expect to pay for your board ? " " My name is Smith ; I 
am from Lawrenceburgh ; I am a young lawyer, and I expect to pay 
you from my practice." " Rather a bad chance, but I will risk you." 
That day my acquaintance with Mr. Claypool commenced, and I 
found him my friend in need, as well as in deed. An intimacy grew 
up between us, which has lasted thirty-seven years, without the 
slightest interruption, and which I have no doubt will continue while 
we live. Tic never wai; a candidate for office that I did not support 
him, nor was I ever before the people or the Legislature, that he was 
not my fast friend. Mr. Claypool represented the county of Fayette 
many y: ars in both branches of the General Assembly, with signal 
ability. He voted for me for United States Senator when I was 



166 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

elected. His greatest forte was in his practical knowledge applied to the 
subject by his strong common sense. He was one of the most effi- 
cient men of the Legislature for many years. The boarding was paid, 
and in after years I had both the honor and pleasure of receiving his 
son, Benjamin F., into my office as a student. 



JOSEPH G. MARSHALL. 

Joseph G. Marshall was another of Indiana's distinguished sons. 
In person, he was large and fleshy, his hair red, like that of Thomas 
Jefferson. As a lawyer, Mr. Marshall stood among the very first in 
the State. His great forte as an advocate was in the power with 
which he handled the facts before the jury. He seemed to forget 
himself in his subject, and at times, I have thought him unsurpassed 
by any man I ever heard, in impassioned eloquence. He had a large 
practice of heavy cases, requiring all his forensic powers. Mr. Mar- 
shall was also one of the leading politicians of the State, many times 
a Representative and Senator from Jefferson, was the nominee of the 
Whig party for Governor, but was defeated by Grov. Whitcomb. He 
was a great speaker before the people, frequently exhausting his 
whole strength on the stand. Like many others he neglected the 
preservation of his voice, and by repeated irritation of the bronchial 
organs, his lungs ultimately became affected, and he closed his life ere 
he had reached its meridian. I was again honored with the presenta- 
tion to the Courts of the proceedings of the bar on the solemn occa- 
sion. 



GEN. TILGHMAN A. HOWARD. 

Gen. Tilghman A. Howard, another of our distinguished dead, 
was one of the great men of the State — I have sometimes thought not 
fully appreciated, as he richly deserved to be. A purer man never 
lived in Indiana. He was a native of Tennessee, and was a student 
of Hugh Lawson White, who spoke to me in the highest terms of the 
General after he came to this State. In person the General was tall 
and commanding, his complexion dark, and his hair and eyes coal 
black. His voice was strong but not musical. As a lawyer he de- 
servedly stood high — among the very first. As a politician he was 
the leader of the Democratic party of the State, loved and honored. 
He left his seat in Congress, as he told me at the time, with great 
regret, at the command of his party, to make the race in 1840, with 
Gov. Bigger. The popularity of Gen. Harrison was irresistible. 



GEN. TILGHMAN A, HOWARD. 167 

Mr. Van Buren was no where, and Gen. Howard fell with him. He 
afterward was sent as minister to Texas, fell a victim to a contagious 
disease, and closed his valuable life before the sun of his usefulness 
had reached mid-day. His body was brought to the Capitol on its way 
to its last resting-place ; I discharged the melancholy duty of drawing 
up and presenting to the courts, the proceedings of the bar of the 
Supreme Court on the affecting occasion. He sleeps in the family 
vault at Rockville, Parke county. 



168 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Thursday Morning, September 24, 1857. 

TRAVELING THE CIRCUIT IN EARLY TIMES. 

The fall term of the Circuit Courts, 1825, found Judge Eggleston 
and myself well mounted, once more on the Circuit. The Judge upon 
his pacing Indian pony, the same that I afterward rode through an 
electioneering Congressional campaign; I then rode my gray "fox." 
We were joined at Centerville by James Rariden, mounted on " Old 
Gray," one of the finest animals I have ever seen. Our Court was to 
be held on the next Monday at Fort Wayne. We reached Winches- 
ter late in the evening and took lodgings at the hotel of Paul W. Way, 
but no newspaper heralded the arrival. How different was a circum- 
stance that occurred when I was in the Senate of the United States. 
Silas Wright, Thomas H. Benton and James Buchanan, for recreation, 
ran up to Philadelphia; the next day the Pennsylvanian announced 
that Senators Benton and Buchanan had arrived in that city and taken 
lodging at the United States Hotel. A few days after the three dis- 
tinguished Senators were in their seats. I sat at the time in the next 
seat to Gov. Silas Wright; turning to the Gov., " I see by the papers 
that Mr. Benton and Mr. Buchanan have been in Philadelphia and 
taken lodgings at the United States Hotel ; how did it happen that 
your name was not announced, as you were with them ?" "I did not 
send my name to the printer." So it was with us. 

After early breakfast we were once more upon our horses, with 
one hundred miles through the wilderness before us. There were two 
Indian paths that led to Fort Wayne, the one by chief Francis God- 
frey's on the Salamonia river, the other in a more easterly direction, 
crossing the Mississenawa higher up and striking the " Quaker trace " 
from Richmond to Fort Wayne, south of the head waters of the 
Wabash river. After a moment's consultation, Mr. Rariden, who wa3 
our guide, turned the head of " Old Gray" to the eastern path, and 
off we started, at a brisk traveling gait in high spirits. The day passed 
away ; it was very hot, and there was no water to be had for ourselves 
or horses. About one o'clock we came to the Wabash River, nearly 
dried up, but there was grass upon the bank for our horses, and we 
dismounted, took off the saddles, blankets and saddle-bags, when the 
question arose, should we hold the horses while they grazed, tic them 
to bushes, spancel them, or turn them loose ? We agreed that the 
latter was the best for the horses and easiest for us, but I raised the 
question of safety, and brought up the old adage, " Safe bind safe find." 
Mr. Rariden. — " You could not drive Old Gray away from me." Judge 
Eggleston. — " My Indian pony will never leave me." I made no prom- 



TKAVELING THE CIRCUIT IiY EA.RLY TIMES. 169 

ises for my " Gray Fox." The bridles were taken off, and the horses 
turned loose to graze. A moment after, Old Gray stuck up his head, 
turned to the path we had just come, and bounded off at a full gallop 
swarming with flies, followed by the pacing pony of the Judge, at his 
highest speed. Fox lingered behind, but soon became infected with 
the bad example of his associates, and away they all went, leaving us 
sitting under the shade of a tree that stood for years afterward on the 
bank of the Wabash. Our horses were, a week afterward, taken up 
at Fort Defiance, in Ohio, and brought to us at Winchester on our 
return. It took us but a moment to decide what to do. Ten miles 
would take us to Thompson's on Townsend's Prairie. Our saddles and 
blankets were hung up above the reach of the wolves. Each took his 
saddle-bags on his back, and we started at a quick step — Rariden in 
the lead, Judge Eggleston in the center, and I brought up the rear. 
The heat was intense. None of us had been much used to walking. 
I am satisfied we must all have broken down, but most fortunately 
there had fallen the night before a light rain, and the water lay in, the 
shade in the horse tracks. We were soon on our knees, with our 
mouths to the water. — Tell me not of your Croton, ye New Yorkers, 
nor of your Fairmount, ye Philadelphians, here was water " what was 
water." Near night we reached the prairie worn down with heat and 
fatigue. The thunders were roaring and the lightnings flashing from 
the black clouds in the west. A storm was coming up on the wings 
of a hurricane, and ten minutes after we arrived at Mr. Thompson's 
it broke upon us in all its fury, and continued raining in torrents 
during the night. We were in a low, one story log cabin, about twenty 
feet square, no floor above, with a clapboard roof. Supper, to us din- 
ner, was soon ready. Three articles of diet only on the plain walnut 
table, corn-dodgers, boiled squirrels, and sassafras tea. — Epicures at 
the 5 o'clock table of the Astor, St. Nicholas, Metropolitan and Revere, 
how do you like the bill of fare? To us it was sumptuous and thank- 
fully received. Supper over, we soon turned in, and such a night of 
sweet sleep I never had before or since. The next morning our sad- 
dles and blankets were brought to us from the Wabash. The landlord 
provided us with ponies and we set forward at full speed, arrived at 
Fort Wayne that night, and took lodgings at the hotel of William N. 
Hood. In the morning court met, Judge Eggleston, President, and 
side judges, Thompson and Cushman on the bench. Fort Wayne 
contained about two hundred inhabitants, and the county of Allen 
some fifty voters. There were no cases on the docket to try of a crim- 
inal character. Court adjourned early, and we all went up the St. 
Mary river, to Chief Richardville's to see an Indian horse race. 



170 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

AN INDIAN HORSE RACE AND A WISE DECISION. 

The nags were brought to the ground, a gray pony, about twelve 
hands high, and a roan, rather larger, like Eclipse and Henry, to con- 
test the superiority of stock between the bands of Miamis and Potta- 
watamies. Six Indians were selected as judges — two placed at the start- 
ing point, two at the quarter stake, and two at the coming-out place. 
" Riders up — clear the track," and away they went under whip and spur. 
The race over, the judges meet, the spokesman, a large Miami, says 
"Race even, Miami grey take first quarter, Pottawatamie roan take last 
quarter," and all are .satisfied. In the evening the grand-jury brought 
in a bill against Elisha B. Harris for stealing an Indian pony. Judge 
Eggleston. — " Any more business before you, Mr. Foreman ? " Gen. 
Tipton. — " None sir." " You are discharged." 



CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 

Judge Eggleston. — " There is but one case on the docket for trial, 
an appeal case, damages claimed five dollars. I feel quite tired, and will 
be obliged to my associates to try the case," Judge Cushman. — " Cer- 
tainly." The case was called. Henry Cooper for the plaintiff, and 
Hiram Brown for the defendant. Case submitted to the Court. The 
action was for damages, five dollars claimed, for killing the plaintifi^s 
dog. The witness swore that he saw the defendant running with his 
rifle across his yard ; saw him lay it on the fence ; saw the smoke ; 
heard the crack ; saw the dog fall ; went to where the dog lay, and saw 
the bullet-hole just behind the fore leg. Here Cooper rested with a 
triumphant air, and indeed, to a common eye, the case seemed to be 
beyond hope, but to the mind of the skillful advocate, capable of draw- 
ing the distinction between positive and circumstantial evidence, a 
different conclusion was come to. — Breckenridge's Miscellanies, and 
Phillips' Evidence, stating the danger of listening to circvimstantial 
evidence, and enumerating many lamentable cases of convictions and 
executions for murder upon circumstantial evidence, when the con- 
victs were afterward proved to be entirely innocent, had been widely 
circulated and extensively read by courts and lawyers until the tend- 
ency of the courts was to reject circumstantial evidence. My friend 
Mr. Brown, an ingenious attorney, of fine talents, and, by the way, 
rather waggish, said : " A single question, Mr. Witness — Can you 
swear that you saw the bullet hit the dog ! " "I can swear to no such 
thing." " That's all, Mr. Cooper ; a case of mere circumstantial evi- 
dence, your Honors." Cooper's countenance fell j defeat stared him in 



CIKCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 171 

the face ; the case was submitted to the Court without further evidence. 
Judge Cushman. — " This is a plain case of circumstantial evidence. 
Judgment for the defendant." Cooper, with great indignation, with his 
eye upon Brown : — " When I die I wish it engraved upon my tomb- 
stone, here lies Henry Cooper — an honest man." Brown, rising as 
quick as thought : — " Pope says an honest man is the noblest work of 
God. There have been Atheists in the world — Bolingbroke of England, 
Voltaire of France, and Tom Paine of America, with a host of other 
infidel writers who may be named : they have all done nothing 
against the Almighty. But let Henry Cooper be held up in the mid 
heavens, by an angel, for the whole race of man to look upon ; and let 
Gabriel, with his trumpet, announce to gazing worlds, this is God's 
noblest ivork, and all the human race would become Atheists in a day." 
We returned to Winchester on our borrowed ponies, took our horses 
that had been brought from Defiance, and reached the Wayne Circuit 
Court in good time. 



172 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Friday Morning, September 25, 1857. 

BALL ROOM MUSIC IN EARLY TIMES- 

In the early part of the winter of 1818, in the midst of a snow 
storm I arrived at Lawreneeburgh from Rising Sun, where I had 
lived from the time I had come to the State in 1817. The evening 
after my arrival, General Dill, Clerk of the Circuit Court, was to have 
a party at his houti^e, and had promised fine music for the occasion. 
I was favored with an invitation. I started early from the hotel. 
Before I had got within a square of the house of the General the 
fife and drum were distinctly heard in that direction. Stepping up 
to the door I knocked several times but got no answer. Entering the 
main hall I saw upon the platform of the stairs the musicians, one 
playing the fife, one beating on the small drum, and the other on a 
huge bass drum with all their might, making as much noise as if 
they had been at the head of the army at the battle of Germantown, 
the General and Captain Vance marching to the music. The General 
told me afterward that it was as fine music as he ever heard. I was 
introduced that evening to Capt. Samuel C. Vance and Gen. Harrison. 
Gen. Dill and Gen. Harrison were warm friends. They had both 
acted as aids to General Anthony Wayne in the Indian Wars in 
Pennsylvania. 



DISTINGUISHED PIONEERS. 

Capt. Vance held his first commission in the Army from General 
Washington, was in many hard fought battles, the "bravest of the 
brave," was present in the midst of St. Clair's defeat, fought with 
Gen. Anthony Wayne in his campaigns against the Indians, and 
aftervs^ard commanded Fort Washington. The war over, Captain 
Vance returned to civil life, married Miss Lawrence, a grand-daughter 
of General St. Clair, became proprietor of Lawreneeburgh and named 
the town for his wife. The person of Capt. Vance was tall and com- 
manding, his face large, his nose of the Roman cast, his eye light, his 
hair sandy, with a cue hanging down his back, his forehead high 
and slightly retreating : his nature was frank, noble, magnanimous and 
generous. He was the father of Lawrence M. Vance, of Indianapolis. 
Capt. Vance died years since, honored and respected by all who 
knew him. 

General James Dill was my preceptor. He was frank and open 
in his intercourse with others, about the common hight, wore a long- 
cue, dressed with taste, features good, eyelids heavy, hair thrown 



DISTINGUISHED PIONEERS. 173 

back in front. The General married a daughter of Gen. St. Clair, 
was many years Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the Dearborn 
Circuit Court. The General has long since left us. 

Of General Harrison I will speak in his proper connection. 

About the same time I became acquainted with Judge Isaac Dunn, 
of Lawrenceburgh, a native of New Jersey, one of the prominent 
men of the State. The Judge was Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and many years Associate Judge of the Dearborn Circuit 
Court. He married a sister of John H. Piatt, of Cincinnati. Judge 
Dunn was one of the most energetic men the State ever had in it, 
good common sense, clear intellect and sound judgment, with a pure 
moral and religious character. He still enjoys a green old age. 

Judge John Watts, another of the pioneers of Indiana, I must 
number with my early friends. Judge Watts was a Baptist preacher. 
His person was l-arge and fleshy. He was the predecessor of Judge 
Eggleston on the circuit bench ; was plain in his dress and manners, 
of a strong, clear mind, hospitable and liberal, friendly to all, and 
always courteous to the bar. He was the father of Col. Johnson 
Watts, of Dearborn, and Judge John S. Watts, of New Mexico. 
Judge Watts has years since gone to his reward, beloved by all who 
knew him. 

Morris Morris, of Indianapolis, was one of the prominent early 
emigrants from Kentucky, that settled in the woods where the Capital 
now stands. The first time the court was held at Indianapolis, I 
became acquainted with Mr. Morris, then residing in a small cabin 
on Pogue's Run. In person Mr. Morris was tall, over six feet high, 
fine form, dark complexion, good eye, fine features. Mr. Morris was 
many years Auditor of State, and discharged the duties with great 
fidelity. He was an ardent Methodist, and his door was ever hospita- 
bly open to the itinerant ministers who called upon him. Mr. Morris 
is the father of Austin W. Morris, Col. Thomas A. Morris, and John 
Morris, of Indianapolis. He still lives. I saw him yesterday, vener- 
able and aged, trembling, as it were, on the brink of the grave. 

Let me not forget my early friend. Colonel Thomas H. Blake, 
whose residence in Indiana dated back to the territory. Col. Blake 
came to Indiana from Washington City, where his father was at one 
time mayor. The Col. held the ofiices of Judge of the Circuit Court, 
Representative in Congress, colleague of mine, Commissioner of the 
General Land Office, in all of which he most faithfully discharged his 
duty. The pei'son of Col. Blake was fine, very fine, of the first class 
mold ; six feet high, straight as an arrow, head erect, grace in every 
movement, intelligence beaming from his countenance, a smile on 



174 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

his face, and a warm grasp of tlie hand. In the whole range of my 
personal acquaintances I never knew a more perfect gentleman, nor 
a man of a higher sense of honor. The Col. died comparatively a 
young man. 

Jonathan John, of Connersville, can not be forgotten. He was 
one of my early cherished friends. A word to his memory. Mr. 
John was an early settler, a noble Kentuckian, honest, frank, kind, 
sincere, a good farmer, his house a welcome home to all who sought 
it. He was the intimate friend of John Conner, the proprietor of the 
town. Mr. John died years ago ; for his kindness to me, I sketch 
this short tribute to his memory. 

John Conner, the proprietor of Connersville, was one of Nature's 
strong men. Taken by the Shawnee Indians when a mere youth, 
he was raised and educated in Indian life, language, and manners. 
When dressed in their costume, and painted, it was difficult to dis- 
tinguish him from a real savage. On one occasion, as he told me, he 
came to Andersontown, then the lodge of a large band of Indians, 
under Chief Anderson. He was dressed and painted as a Shawnee, 
and pretended to be a Representative of Tecumseh. As is usual with 
the Indians, he took his seat on a log barely in sight of the Indian 
encampment, quietly smoked his pipe, waiting the action of Anderson 
and his under chiefs. After an hour he saw approaching the old 
chief himself, in full dress, smoking his pipe. I give his language. 
" As the old chief walked up to me I rose from my seat, looked him 
in the eyes, we exchanged pipes, and walked down to the lodge smoking, 
without a word. I was pointed to a bear skin — took my seat, with 
my back to the chiefs. A few minutes after, I noticed an Indian by 
the name of Gillaway, who knew me well, eyeing me closely. I tried 
to evade his glance, when he bawled out in the Indian language, at 
the top of his voice, interpreted, ' You great Shawnee Indian, you 
John Conner.' The next moment the camp was in a perfect roar 
of laughter. Chief Anderson ran up to me, throwing off his dignity. 
' You great Representative of Tecumseh,' and burst out in a loud 
laugh." Mr. Conner was an active, prominent, honest man, repre- 
sented his county in the Senate, and gave the casting vote in favor 
of the ballot system of voting. He was father of William W. Conner, 
of Hamilton county. He long since departed this life. 

His brother William Conner was taken and educated by the 
Indians at the same time — was intimately acquainted with the great 
Shawnee chief, Tecumseh. He spoke the language of many of the 
tribes, acted as interpreter at several treaties, was with General Harri- 
son at Fort Meigs, marched up the Maumee with the army, was in 



DISTINGUISHED PIONEERS. 175 

the battle of the Thames, and was the first man that recognized the 
dead Tecumseh on the battle-field, after the action. I have often 
heard him tell the story of the battle. To the question, " who killed 
Tecumseh?" his answer invariably was, " G-eueral Harrison and Col. 
Johnson, the commanders ; no one ever knew who fired the gun that 
killed him." This, I have no doubt, was the truth. Col. "Johnson, 
in my presence, always avoided the question, and I have yet to learn 
from any reliable source that he ever said he shot the Shawnee 
chief, in person. William Conner, like his brother John, was a man 
of great good sense, of indomitable energy in early life. He was 
many years a Representative in the Legislature from Hamilton, of 
strict integrity and high honor. He was the father of Richard J. 
Conner, and Alexander H. Conner, of Indianapolis. Mr. Conner 
died a few years since at an advanced age, highly respected by his 
numerous acquaintances. 

Judge William Helm, of Fayette, was another of the first settlers 
of the Whitewater Valley. I class him among my most valued early 
friends. The Judge was a Kentuckian, deeply imbued with the 
hospitality of his countrymen. He was a strong and a good man. 
The Judge was many years on the circuit bench of his county ; his 
judgment was sound, and his integrity above question. He was the 
father of Meredith Helm, of Fayette, Dr. Jefi"erson Helm, of Rush, 
and Robert D. Helm, of Wabash. The Judge long since departed 
this life. 

With these brief charcoal sketches of individuals, I must ask the 
reader to excuse me from noticing others. My space will not permit 
me to extend them, as I design hereafter to sketch scenes and persons 
of more general interest. 



176 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Saturday Morning, September 26, 1857. 

"ACCIDENTS BY FLOOD AND FIELD." 

In the winter of 1824-5, after the conviction of Hudson, the Leg- 
islature attached the county of Madison to the Third Judicial Circuit, 
making it the duty of Judge Eggleston to preside, and of myself to 
prosecute the other prisoners — Sawyer, Bridge, Sen., and Bridge, Jr., 
at Fall Creek. I was notified that Gen. James Noble and Phillips 
Sweetzer would assist me in the trials. Col. John Johnston, the 
Indian Agent was to be there, with funds to pay the witnesses and 
counsel for the State, as he had done upon the former trial with Gen. 
Noble and Mr. Sweetzer. The Court was to meet the next Monday. 
On Thursday morning, I mounted young " Grey Fox." The only 
traveled route between Connersville and the falls of Fall Creek was 
then by Indianapolis, a small village in the woods. I arrived at the 
Capital on Saturday night, and early next morning started alone on 
the path that led up Fall Creek, on the east side. The main track lay 
on the west side ; but the water was high and muddy, and I thought 
it safest to go up on the east side without crossing. There were no 
bridges over any of the streams in that day. 

The day was dark and drizzling. My path ended some ten miles 
above Indianapolis, in a thicket. I could get no further in that direc- 
tion. Turning the head of Fox, west, the creek with its muddy 
waters and rapid currents overflowing the opposite bottoms was soon 
in sight. I had twenty miles to ride, and no time to be lost. Giving 
Fox the rein he approached the bank, and without a moments hesita- 
tion, with a quick step, plunged in, and swam beautifully across the 
main channel ; but the moment he struck the overflowed bottom on 
the opposite side — the water about four feet deep — he began to sink 
and plunge. The girth broke. I seized the stirrup leather, to which 
my saddle-bags were fastened, with one hand, the long mane of Fox 
with the other, disengaged my feet in a moment, and was gallantly 
dragged through the mud and water to the dry land. My hat was 
gone, but it was too early in the season for mosquitoes, and it made 
little difl'erence, h&t or no hat, so that I cot to court. I had no mir- 
ror with me, or I might have been reminded of the description of 
Ovid, as the waters resettled and the earth arose from the flood : 

"Nature beheld herself and stood nghast — 
A silent desert and a dismal waste." 

All matters were soon adjusted. Fox bounded on as light as a rein- 
deer, and before dark I was in lively conversation with the other law- 
yers, before the large log fire at the hotel of Mr. Long. 



TRIAL OF SAWYER. 177 

TRIAL OF SAWYER. 

Monday morning came. Court met. Judge Eggleston, in fine 
health, on the bench in the center ; Adam Winchel on his left and 
Samuel Holliday on his right. Moses Cox at the clerk's desk ; Sam- 
uel Cory on the sheriff's platform ; and Col. John Berry captain of 
the guard, leaning against the logs. The grand-jury were called, 
sworn and charged, and Court adjourned for dinner. In the afternoon, 
the evidence of the main witnesses was heard. I had prepared the 
indictments in my office and had them with me. The foreman signed 
the bills on his knee, and they were all returned into court before the 
adjournment. That night, Col. John Johnston, the Indian Agent, 
called at my room and offered me 100 dollars on behalf of the United 
States. I informed him that I was a State officer and could not accept 
the money ; however tempting it might be under other circumstances. 

The Court met in the morning. We agreed to try Sawyer first, for 
shooting one of the squaws. The prisoner was brought into court by 
the sheriff. He appeared so haggard and changed by his long con- 
finement, that I scarcely knew him. The court-room was crowded. 
Gen. James Noble, Phillips Sweetzer and myself for the State ; 
James Rariden, Lot Bloomfield, William R. Morris and Charles H. 
Test for the prisoner. Judge Eggleston. — " Sheriff', call the petit-jury." 
Judge Winchel. — " Sheriff, call Squire Makepeace on the jury, he will 
be a good juror ; he will not let one of these murderers get away." 
Judge Eggleston, turning to Judge Winchel, "This will never do. 
What, the Court pack a jmy to try a capital case?" The jury was 
soon impanueled. The evidence was conclusive that the prisoner had 
shot one of the squaws at the camp with his rifle, after the killing of 
Ludlow and Mingo by Harper and Hudson in the woods. — The jury 
were a hardy, heavy-bearded set of men, with side-knives in theii 
belts, and not a pair of shoes among the whole of them ; all wore moc- 
casins. Mr. Sweetzer opened for the State, with a strong matter-of- 
fact speech ; that was his forte. He was followed in able speeches by 
Mr. Morris, Mr. Test and Mr. Kariden for the prisoner. Gen. Noble 
closed for the prosecution, with a powerful speech. The General was 
one of the strongest and most effective speakers before a jury, or a 
promiscuous assembly, I have ever heard. The case went to the jury un- 
der an able charge from Judge Eggleston and Court adjourned for dinner. 

At the meeting of the Court in the afternoon, the jury returned a 
verdict of " guilty of manslaughter," two years at hard labor in the 
penitentiary. Mr. Rariden sprang to his feet, " If the Court please, 
we let judgment go on the verdict, and are ready for the case of Saw- 
yer, for killing the Indian boy at the camp." " Ready for the State." 
12 



178 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

The same jury were accepted by both sides — being in the bos. They 
were immediately sworn. The evidence was heard, again conclusive 
against the prisoner. Gen. Noble opened for the prosecution, and 
was followed by Charles H. Test, "William R. Morris and James Eari- 
den, with powerful speeches. The jury were referred to their verdict 
in the previous case, and their judgment was warmly eulogized. This 
was, by arrangement, my ease to close. I saw my position, and that 
the only point I had to meet, was to draw the distinction between the 
two cases, so as to justify the jury in finding a verdict for man- 
slaughter in the one case, and of murder in the case before them. In 
law there was no difference whatever. They were both cold-blooded 
murders. The calico shirt of the murdered boy, stained with blood, 
lay upon the table. I was closing a speech of an hour. Stepping 
forward, I took up the bloody shirt, and holding it up to the jury, 
" Yes, gentlemen of the jury, the cases are very different. You might 
find the prisoner guilty of only manslaughter, in using his rifle on a 
grown squaw; that was the act of a man, but this was the act of a 
demon. Look at this shirt, gentlemen, with the bloody stains upon 
it ; this was a poor helpless boy, who was taken by the heels b}' this 
fiend in human shape, and his brains knocked out against a log ! If 
the other case was manslaughter, is not this murder?" The eyes of 
the jury were filled with tears. Judge Eggleston gave a clear and 
able charge upon the law. The jury, after an absence of only a few 
minutes, returned a verdict of " murder in the first degree." The 
prisoner was remanded, and Court adjourned. 



TRIAL OF BRIDGE-SCENES AT THE EXECUTION 

The nest morning, the case of Bridge, Sen., for shooting a little 
Indian girl at the camp, was called. The prisoner entered with the 
sheriff. He was more firm in his step, and looked better than Sawyer, 
though a much older man. A jury was impanneled. The proof was 
positive. The case was argued by Mr. Morris and Mr. Rariden for 
the prisoner, and Mr. Sweetzer and myself for the State. The charge 
was given by Judge Eggleston, and after a few minutes absence, the 
jury returned a verdict of " murder in the first degree." The only 
remaining case — of the stripling. Bridge, Jr., for the murder of the 
other Indian boy at the camp — came on next. The trial was more 
brief, but the result was the same — verdict of murder in the first 
■desree. with a recommendation, however, to the Governor for a par- 
don, in consequence of his youth, in which the Court and Bar joined. 
The trials closed. Pro forma motions for new trials were overruled, 



TRIAL OF BRIDGE — THE EXECUTION. 179 

the prisoners remanded, to be brought up for sentence next morning, 
and the Court adjourned. 

Morning came, and with it a crowded court-house. As I walked 
from the tavern, I saw the guard approaching with Sawyer, Bridge, 
Sen., and Bridge, Jr., with downcast eyes and tottering steps, in their 
midst. The prisoners entered the court-room and were seated. The 
sheriff commanded silence. The prisoners rose, the tears sti'eaming 
down their faces, and their groans and sighs filling the court-room. I 
fixed my eyes upon Judge Eggleston. I had heard him pronounce 
sentence of death on Fuller, for the murder of Warren, and upon 
Fields for the murder of Murphy. But here was a still more solemn 
scene. An aged father, his favorite son and his wife's brother — all 
standing before him, to receive sentence of death. The face of 
the Judge was pale ; his lips quivered ; his tongue faltered, as he 
addressed the prisoners. The sentence of death by hanging was pro- 
nounced, but the usual conclusion, " And may God have mercy on 
your souls," was left struggling for utterance. 

The time for the execution was fixed at a distant day ; but it soon 
rolled around. The gallows was erected on the, north bank of Fall 
Creek, just above the falls, at the foot of the rising grounds j^ou may 
see from the cars. The hour for the execution had come. Thousands 
surrounded the gallows. A Seneca chief with his warriors, was posted 
near the brow of the hill. Sawyer and Bridge, Sen. ascended the 
scaffold together, were executed in quick succession, and died without 
a struggle. The vast audience were in tears. The exclamation of 
the Senecas was interpreted — " We are satisfied." An hour expired. 
The bodies were t^iken down and laid in their cofiins, when there was 
seen ascending the scafi"old, Bridge, Jr., the last of the convicts. His 
step was feeble, requiring the aid of the sheriff. — The rope was 
adjusted. He threw his eyes around upon the audience, and then 
down upon the coffins, where lay exposed the bodies of his father and 
uncle. From that moment, his wild gaze too clearly showed that the 
scene had been too much for his youthful mind. Reason had partially 
left her throne, and he stood wildly looking at the crowd, apparently 
unconscious of his position. The last minute had come, when James 
Brown Ray, the Governor of the State, announced to the immense 
assemblage that the convict was pardoned. Never before did an audi- 
ence more heartily respond, while there -was a universal regret that 
the executive mercy had been deferred to the last moment. — Thus 
ended the only trials, where convictions of murder were ever had, 
followed by the execution of white men, for killing Indians, in the 
United States. 



180 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



[Indianapolis Daily Journal. 

HUSBAND AND WIFE-SKETCH OF THE SPEECH 
OF HON. OLIVER H. SMITH. 

We give a brief sketch of the speech of the Hon. Oliver H. Smith 
in a recent divorce case in this city : 

" The distinguished gentleman from New York, Matthew Hale Smith, 
who opened this case for the plaintiff, in an able argument, spoke 
of the Garden of Eden, a most unfortunate allusion on his part. Yes, 
gentlemen of the jury, there was a Garden of Eden, the paradise of 
God on earth, created by him, to receive the parents of the human 
family. You who have seen the Panorama of the Bible lately 
exhibited in this city, can have a very imperfect vision of its gran- 
deur and sublimity. Our first parents were placed in this garden 
by the hands of the Almighty, as pure as himself, were declared to 
be husband and wife, and as such, one flesh. There were no human 
priests there to solemnize the marriage, no altars erected before which 
to consecrate the relations of husband and wife ; that holy relation, 
with all its train of blessings to the human family, was created by 
the Almighty, and marked divine. Among the trees of that paradise 
there stood one, more prominent to the eye than any other, called the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which our first 
parents were forbidden to eat, -with the declaration of God, ' that the 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' This tree and its 
fruit I liken to the relation between husband and wife ; they who shall 
seduce either the one or the other, to violate the sacred marriage vow, 
shall surely die. 

" Our parents, so placed in the garden, were content and happy, and 
knew no evil. The Almighty walked with and watched over them. 
They were not only in his own image, but they were a personification 
upon earth of his purity, honor and glory. Still, not like him, they 
were mortal, subject to temptation, and to foil from that high estate 
of purity in which they were created. Direct your mind's eye to 
the moving canvas of the panorama, look at the serpent, stretching 
his length around the trunk of the forbidden tree, and protruding his 
accursed head from the branches, with the fruit of the tree in his 
mouth, offering it to Eve, while he quiets her fears by sounding in 
her ears — ' Thou shalt not surely die.' We see no more of the 
.^erpent, but Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the 
garden when the voice of God walked therein in the cool of the day. 
I need not speak of the penalty that was entailed upon the human 



HUSBAND AJy'D WIFE. 181 

race; but tlie serpent was accursed by the Almighty above all the 
beasts of the field, and condemned to go upon his belly, and to eat 
dust all the days of his life. Such is the Bible account of the first 
transgression. Yes, gentlemen of the jury, there was a serpent; a 
seducer, there, to interfere with the happiness of our first parents ; 
and there is a serpent here, who has dared to intrude upon the holy 
relations of husband and wife. 

The difference between the location of the Paradise of the Scriptures 
and that of these parties can not change the nature of the transgres- 
sion. That garden was planted, watered, protected, and cherished by 
the Almighty himself. The garden in which these parties were 
domiciled was the City of Washington, inhabited and visited by the 
upper crust of society, where perhaps the moral sense, though greatly 
higher than that of the Court of Lewis the XIV. of France, or Charles 
the II. of England, is not at that high and pure standard that should 
commend itself to our highest approbation. The Eve of the garden 
of God, after she had transgressed, hid herself from the eye of the 
Almighty ; while the Eve of this garden comes unblushingly into 
court, and meets the gaze of a crowded house. The serpent of the 
Bible went away from the scene of his seduction, upon his belly, 
eating the dust of the earth ; and his progeny, to this day, continue 
to drag their slimy bodies upon their bellies, under the curse of both 
God and man, while this serpent has the eifrontery to present himself 
upon the witness-stand — -a living monument of his own disgrace, and 
of the ruin of a once happy family. The servient of the Bible obtruded 
himself into the presence of our parents, while the serpent of our 
garden was introduced by a confiding husband to a then innocent wife. 

What shall I say of the seducer, under such circumstances? Who 
shall I compare him with ? Tell me not of the highway robber ! Tell 
me not of the midnight assassin ! — of the fiend that administers the 
poisoned cup. They but rob us of some money, or of a few years 
of life. They leave the character untouched, to be cherished and 
honored by our friends. 

The family relations— the holy relation of husband and wife, are the 
greatest blessings that were ever conferred upon man by the Almighty, 
and whoever attempts to violate them, commits a crime against the 
most sacred of all the institutions of God upon earth, and may read 
his fate in that of the serpent in the garden. I have often thought 
of the beautiful idea of Phillips, the Irish orator, when speaking of 
the state of mind of the disconsolate husband, after the serpent had 
entered, and alienated the affections of the wife : the orator said, " The 
silent doors on their hinges were eloquent of his woe." 



182 EAELY I^DIATsM TRIALS. 

I read only this morning in a city paper an extract from a speech 
of the Hon. Rufus Choate, of Boston, on flirtation. I know Mr. 
Choate well, he is one of the most eloquent men of this or any other 
country. I read the sketch of his speech, and while I was delighted 
with his style, I could not but feel that it was but the effort of a 
brilliant mind struggling with truth. He, too, was dealing with the 
holy relation of husband and wife, and his great effort was to prove 
that there may be flirtation without crime, but even in that he had to 
admit that crime is the general rule, and flirtation without crime the 
exception — that the one as a general rule is the premonitory symptom 
of the other. But Mr. Choate seemed to forget that the premonitory 
symptom, flirtation, is equally effectual to poison and destroy the 
tender tie that unites husband and wife, if continued against the 
wishes and request of either, as is the consummation of the crime. 
Shakspeare says, " I would rather be a toad and live upon the vapors 
of a dungeon, than keep a corner in the thing I love for others uses." 

I am told by the gentleman, as an excuse, that his client has a kind 
of universal love for all mankind. I suppose he means the kind of 
love that the rays of the sun bear to this globe, warming and fructify- 
ing the whole vegetable kingdom, not even forgetting or neglecting 
the polar seas. If so, I have only to add to the figure, — and holding 
in her hand the sun-glass, concentrating her universal love upon the 
serpent in our garden, whom she had permitted to destroy the rela- 
tion of husband and wife between those who were once happy in the 
enjoyment of its blessings. 

But it is said that these parties have been protected from criminal 
improprieties by the presence of the aged mother of one of them. 
Vain delusion ! Virtue in proper places needs no protection, while 
vice can not be watched where the will concurs with the consummation 
of crime in secret places. 

We learn from heathen mythology that Jupiter was enamored of 
the princess whom to escape the jealousy of Juno, he changed into 
a heifer. Juno set Argus with his hundred eyes to watch her, two 
of which were to keep awake and constantly to stand guard while the 
other slept by turns. Mercury, by direction of Jupiter, by the music 
of his lyre lulled Argus to sleep and slew him ; Juno to reward his 
services while living, and as a memento of his fidelity, transferred his 
eyes to the Peacock's train, and forever after gave up the delusion, that 
willing vice could be watched and guarded by tardy virtue. 

Gentlemen, the human passions were given to man for wise and 
holy purposes, and so long as they are kept under his virtuous will 
and control, and directed to the purposes designed by the Almighty, 



HUSBAND AND WIFE. 183 

they are a blessing to him and tend to his happiness on Earth. But 
when they are suffered to run riot, govern and control his being, 
they become the greatest curse that can meet him in his journey 
through life. Such a man may be likened to one of our majestic 
steamers, crowded with passengers, crossing the Atlantic. She is 
built with all the modern improvements ; her cabin a beautiful moving 
palace ; her engines have the necessary power to propel her through 
the mountain waves like a bird of passage ; the steam is up ; the 
officers and crew upon duty ; the passengers seated by the cabin fires : 
all is joy, hilarity and good feeling. But hark ! — The cry of fire is 
heard from the lower deck. All start as if the knell of death had 
sounded. They rush above ; all is confusion there ; dismay and despair 
are depicted in every countenance. The noble ship is on fire ! 
That dreadful element is no longer the servant of officers and 
crew, but now in turn has become master. What shall be done? 
Escape from the burning vessel is the only hope. The life boats 
are lowered, filled and foundered the moment they meet the waves, 
and those who had taken refuge in them are all consigned to 
an ocean grave. And still the fire rages, the vessel is enveloped in 
flames ; she is soon consumed to the surface of the briny deep, and 
lies a blackened hulk, or sinks into the abyss below, carrying with 
her the charred remains of all on board. That most useful element, 
fire, had violated the object of its creation and use, and destroyed 
the magnificent steamer with all her passengers and crew within the 
time that it has taken me to describe the thrilling calamity. 

This, gentlemen, is but a faint resemblance of the dreadful con- 
sequences of permitting our passions to become our masters. Having 
said thus much, preliminary to the argument of the facts of the case, 
I will relieve you for the present and direct your minds to the appli- 
cation of what I have said, to the case before you. 



184 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

[Monday Mornikg, September 28, 1857. 

LAW PRACTICE. 

I YIELD this sketcli, at the request of my young friends, to the legal 
profession. With some preparatory study, and thirty-seven years prac- 
tice in the courts of the State and of the United States, it may be pre- 
sumed that the subject I touch is somewhat familiar to me, and, as 
the title of the sketches indicate that they are more or less directed to 
the bar, this will be considered as appropriate. The profession of the 
law is of high import and of great responsibility, involving more for 
deep reflection and mature consideration before it is entered into than 
any other. Why is it that so many of the profession fall by the way- 
side ? Why so many hangers-on to the skirts of the profession ? Why 
so many who never reach a medium position at the bar ? Why so few 
who acquire wealth and fame in the profession ? These are important 
questions, in which the young man designing to make the law his pro- 
fession — the father who thinks of the profession for his son — the young 
professional man. and even the more aged practitioner, is more or less 
interested. 

It is not generally understood that the profession of the law is one 
of the most laborious that man was ever engaged in ; that the proper 
preparation of the body and mind for eminent success is found only 
in the few, and whenever found with the proper habits, integrity, and 
industry, success will as certainly follow as that effect will follow cause. 
There never was a greater error, in fact, than that committed by devo- 
ted parents when selecting professions for their sons. The most fee- 
ble, the tendcrest, and those who are supposed to be unable to struggle 
physically with the out-door labors of other professions, trades, occu- 
pations and businesses, are consigned to the seclusion of a professional 
office. My experience and observation teaches me that all such should 
be directed m their youth to some active out-door employment, trade 
or avocation, giving constant exercise to the body and mind. The 
student-at-law can not have too firm a constitution ; his chest and lungs 
can not be too much expanded ; his voice can not be too clear and 
strong ; nor his health too good. If he practices the profession only 
half as long as I have, he will find that he will have use for all the 
bodily qualifications I have named. 

Good common sense is essential. It is the foundation upon which 
the superstructure of education must rest. And if it is defective, you 
may build the superstructure to the skies, and it will crumble and fall. 
If nature has not done her part to make the lawyer, in vain will he 
struggle, to sink at last into some other profession or avocation which 



LAW PEACTICE. 185 

nature lias designed him for. The student should have a good, sound 
English education ; he should spell well, read well, and write well 
and understand the principles of arithmetic and English gi-ammar. 
The higher branches may be added, but I do not hold that in this 
country a knowledge of the dead languages, and a familiarity with 
the classics is essential to the student, nor even to his success as a 
practitioner, although I do not object to their study where a favora- 
ble opportunity has been afforded. — But I do mean to say that I have 
known many graduates of colleges who were so deficient in the English 
department of their education as to be disqualified for students in my 
office. A fine-looking young man called upon me one day, desiring 
to study law with me. I inquired of him as to his education. " I am 
a graduate of an Eastern college ; I understand Latin, Greek and 
Hebrew ; I stood No, 2 in a large class of graduates." '' Do you spell 
well? " " I presume so, but I never thought much of that." " Spell 
balance." '• Bal-lance." "That won't do. Do you read well?" 
"Certainly." "Read this." " My name is Nerval o)t the Grampian 
hills." " What was his najne off the Grampian hills? — Do you write 
well ? " " No, I never could write much ; indeed I never tried to learn. 
Our great men East can scarcely write their names so that they can be 
read." " Let me see you write." He scratched off some caricatures 
looking like Greek, or turkey tracks. " That is sufficient; your edu- 
cation is too imperfect for a lawyer ; the dead languages may be dis- 
pensed with, but spelling, reading and writing can not be." I advised 
him to go to one of our common schools and begin his education over 
again, and he might yet qualify himself for the study of law. 

The license or diplomas to practice obtained is the test time in the 
whole of the young lawyer's career. If he thinks that the license quali- 
fies him, that his studies are ended, that he can then indulge his ease 
upon his cushioned sofa, smoke his scented cigars, cultivate his whis- 
kers and mustaches, drive his fine hprses, give his wine parties, spend 
his nights at the card-table, and still become eminent in his profession, 
he will be disappointed in the end. His license will prove his curse, 
and he will sink to his grave unnoticed and unknown as a lawyer. 
On the contrary, if he views the matter in the proper light, that his 
license is only intended td authorize him to unite the study of the 
books with the practice of his profession, that he is just entering upon 
his studies that are never to end but with his life, that he will be every 
day better and better qualified to read and understand, he may with 
proper habits and perseverance rise high in his profession. After 
thirty-seven years of reading and practice, I feel that I am, as it were, 
just beginning to learn my profession. 



186 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

The student will learn as he enters the courts, and begins to try 
his eases, that the learning of the books alone will not sustain him, 
without a knowledge of the world of men and things. He will have 
occasion every day to draw upon outside knowledge, and to bring to 
bear the circumstances that surround him, upon the cause of his client. 
He should come to his case thoroughly prepared with the facts and the 
law, as both Court and jury are ignorant of his case. He should be 
ready to place it fairly and truly before them. To do this his library 
should be looked to as to the law, and his client should be examined 
and cross-examined as to the facts, and then held responsible if he 
should have stated them too favorably to himself, as too many will do. 
The lawyer should maintain the strictest integrity, and the nicest sense 
of honor. His character is his capital. No personal security is required 
of him by the public. His faith, his honor stand pledged, and if once 
violated, he is bankrupt, and his profession only points to his disgrace. 

A young lawyer has it in his power to surround himself with friends, 
or to cut himself off from the sympathy of his brethren. If in his 
intercourse, his arguments, his competitions, with the other members 
of the bar, he treats them with the respect and kindness he would like 
them to observe toward him, it will be reciprocated, and his practice 
will pass smoothly and pleasantly on. The golden rule applies with 
great force to the bar. The members are perhaps too sensitive, always 
ready to repel supposed aggression, and frequently disposed to carry 
the war further than the occasion warrants. But let the practitioner 
assume the character of the hyena, and he will always find that there 
are lions and tigers in the menagerie as well as those of his species. 

The great point to be considered before impanneling the jury is to 
make up the true issue, to try the merits of your case, to which your 
evidence is applicable, so as to give your client the full benefit of his 
cause of action, and defense. The right of challenge of jurors for 
cause will of course be seen to by the practitioner. The peremptory 
challenge, although a valuable right, should be exercised with great 
caution. In one case my client went to the penitentiary because I 
peremptorily challenged the only juror that knew the prosecuting wit- 
ness, and who would have saved my client, who was afterward clearly 
shown to be innocent. — I challenged the juror because I thought he 
did not like me. I had argued a case against him. At another time 
I had taken the jurors; they were standing up to be sworn, when I 
saw one of them wink at the opposite party. I challenged him, and 
learned afterward that I had saved the case of my client by it. 

In questioning and cross-questioning witnesses, counsel frequently 
do great injustice to the witness, without in the least benefiting their 



LAW PRACTICE. 187 

cause. The jury is composed of men in all respects like the witness, 
and if his character stands unimpeached, they are disposed to give him 
credit for a disposition to tell the truth, unless they see his position 
or motives would lead him to side with one of the parties. A lawyer 
inconsiderately looks upon the witness sworn on the side of his adver- 
sary as hostile to his client, and attacks him in manner, voice, and 
with a thousand useless questions, plainly showing to the jury the 
state of the mind of the lawyer, to the prejudice of the cause of 
the client. As a general rule there are too many questions asked the 
witness, depending upon the clearness or obscurity of the legal vision 
of the attorney. He who sees his case clearly can put his qviestions 
to the witness so as to come directly to the point in issue. I have 
known many cases lost by counsel cross-questioning their own wit- 
nesses after the case was made out. In criminal cases, resting on cir- 
cumstantial evidence, I have never found it difficult to point to the 
real criminal wherever presence, motive, and opportunity combine. 
In the absence of stronger outside proof, I fix the criminal. The 
murder of Dr. Burdell, in New York, although, in the eye of many 
for a time, a mystery, never looked so to me. I fixed the crime upon 
those who had the opportunity and the motive. Mrs. Cunningham 
was there. Mr. Eckel was there. Dr. Burdell was a single man and 
rich. Mrs. Cunningham, a widow without reputation, pretending to 
have married Dr. Burdell secretly, would be entitled, if his wife, to a 
widow's share of his estate upon his death. The " presence " was 
there, the " motive " was there, and there was no outside circumstance 
to rebut the violent presumption that Eckel was the tool of Mrs. Cun- 
ningham, to personate Dr. Burdell at the pretended marriage, and to 
murder him on the fatal night in Bond street. Such, I believe, is now 
the universal opinion. The pretended marriage has been declared by 
the court fraudulent. The procured heir has been returned to its 
mother, and the author of the crime is now in the tombs. 



188 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



THOMAS H. BENTON. 
Col. Benton has been so long identified with the history of the 
country, as a public man, a Senator and Author, that I will be excused 
for making this sketch brief, referring the reader to the published works 
of the Col. for the history of his public acts. To say that Col. Benton 
was among the first men in the nation is only what is universally 
conceded to him. T served in the Senate of the United States six 
years with him, and enjoyed his intimacy during my entire term. In 
person Col. Benton was large, and powerfully made, above the ordinary 
hight. deep expanded chest, broad square shoulders, large head, high 
prominent forehead, thin short whiskers, wide mouth, projecting chin, 
large nose, blue eyes well set, inclined to baldness, hair brown and 
thin on his head. As a speaker the Col. was strong, clear, forcible, 
imperative, seldom persuasive, never submissive, sometimes eloquent. 
He always spoke like a man conscious of his facts, and he was seldom 
or never mistaken, as he spoke with the documents before him, to 
which he often referred, and by which he would stand corrected, but 
in no other way. His iron will was indomitable, like all great men he 
succumbed to neither friend nor foe. Col. Benton was well qualified 
for a military commander. He scorned to play second to any man. 
He gave his opinions in debate frankly, openly and fearlessly, main- 
taining them with a firmness, sometimes called obstinacy, if he stood 
alone. On one occasion in Executive Session, Mr. Tyler had nominated 
a Democrat to a land-office, the nomination was announced. Col. 
Benton never whispered when he spoke from his chair but it was so loud 
that I could hear him on the opposite side of the chamber. Mr. Walker 
was soliciting the Col. to vote for the nominee, it was supposed that 
the vote would be close, the Whig Senators not being remarkably 
partial to Mr. Tyler's nominations just at that time. Col. Benton 
whispered " A Democrat, and the nominee of John Tyler, so much the 
worse, it is bad enough for Tyler to send us a Whig without qualifica- 
tions, but to send us such a Democrat, is too bad." " I vote no." The 
nominee was rejected. The Col. constituted within himself his own 
dynasty. He was one of the most laborious men in the Senate, never 
idle, always writing with his books upon his desk, and his documents 
under his table. He seldom took part in the common debates, but 
as seldom permitted any important question to leave the Senate until 
he was heard. He never made a speech without documentary prepara- 
tion, and always addressed the Senate fortified with the documents to 
sustain him. His printed speeches under his own supervision, wher 
ever they are, will be found stufied with the proof to sustain his 



COL. BENTON. 189 

positions. Unlike Mr. Calhoun, he was never satisfied with his own 
declamations merely, it was not enough for him to say " I say it is so." 
But " here are the documents to prove it." I always listened to the 
Col. with much interest. I thought him often very eloquent, still 
his was the eloquence that held the undivided attention of the Senate, 
but not of that exciting character that fills the galleries, and crowds 
the aisles with ladies. It has been said of Col. Benton, that he was 
on too good terms with himself; that may have been his fault, but if 
so, he shared it with the most of the other distinguished Senators. 
No Western man will ever doubt that Col. Benton was true as steel to 
Western interests ; indeed, if he had that fault, it was not one for which 
I could censure him. He may have loved his own West but too well, 
a failing common to West^ern Senators. I must refer the reader to 
his own " Thirty Years " for his political views, and his speeches on the 
many subjects before the Senate, giving here an extract from one of 
them, merely to show the character of his mind, and style of his pen. 

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF MR. BENTON. 

" To make this clear, it is necessary to refresh our minds with some 
recollections of the Mexican Kevolution, a subject which has been 
referred to by the speakers in a manner which would seem to indicate 
great ignorance on their part. I know that many look at the 
events of Iguala, in February, 1821, as the beginning of the 
Revolution. Nonsense, Mr. President, that event was at the end of 
the Revolution, which had commenced eleven years before. It began 
on the 15th day of September, in the year 1810, and in the manner 
which had been foretold by Gen. (then Lieutenant) Pike, four years 
before. It began with the lower orders of the hierarchy, with the native 
clergy, all condemned to wear out their lives in curacies while the 
princely endowments of the great dioceses were bestowed upon exotics 
imported* from old Spain. The Revolution began in this class, the 
native and the lower clergy, and never did popular movements have a 
more marked, a more imposing, a more grand, or a more auspicious 
commencement. It burst at once, without premonition, like a bla- 
zing comet on the view of the world. It was on Sunday, the 15th 
day of September, 1810, that the curate Hidalgo, in the village of 
Dolores, in the province of Guanaxauto, at the close of the celebra- 
tion of the high mass and after having preached a sermon in favor of 
Independence^ issued from the door of his parish church, the crucifix 
in his hand, the standard of revolt borne before him, and calling upon 
the children of Mexico to follow him ; and never, since the days of 
Peter the hermit, was a call so answered. The congregation followed, 



190 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

the village followed, the parish followed. Cities, towns, provinces 
followed the crucifix of the curate, and crushing all resistance, a mass 
of 70,000 men appeared on the hills which overlooked the city of 
Montezuma, and which, since the days of Cortez, had never beheld an 
army with banners. The brave curate, with that instinct of generalship 
which knows when to leave old rules behind, was for instant attack ; and, 
if he had done so, in three hours the city was his, and the Revolution at 
an end ; but a fatal delay of three days was allowed. Treason had 
penetrated his camp. The Viceroy had sent traitors to whisper in 
every ear the impossibility of the undertaking, that. the priest was no 
general and would be whipped, that he could not take the city, and 
that himself and followers would all be ruined. Bribes followed, and 
treason and corruption dissolved in three days the patriotic army 
which no force could resist, and which was on the point of giving 
liberty and independence to its country. But the Revolution did not 
stop. The brave curate carried it on till he was killed, and statues 
have been erected to his memory. Other leaders appeared. The 
patriots kept the field, or rather the mountains, and at the end of 
eleven years the events of Iguala put an end to the contest. It had 
been a struggle, not between the mother country and the colony, but 
between the diiferent classes of the Mexiciin population, the native 
against the European. These two classes, in the persons of their 
chiefs, united at Iguala^ joined their arms together, proclaimed the 
independence of their country, and from that day (21st February, 
1821) the Revolution was terminated, the independent government 
was established, and the power of Spain had ceased forever. The 
'pJan of Igudld. of which Iturbide was the hero, was the work of 
united Mexicans. It was the union of Mexicans in the cause of inde- 
pendence, and both declared and established independence. It was a 
great act in itself, putting an end to the Revolution of Mexico, but was 
speedily followed by another act putting the seal upon it. This was 
the treaty of Cordova concluded on the 24th of August of the same year, 
in which the extinction of the Spanish power in Mexico, and the estab- 
lishment of its independence was formally and fully acknowledged 
by the Spanish king's representative in the Viceroyalty of Mexico. 
There is a Spanish copy of this important act in our Congress Library, 
but in the haste of the moment, I have not been able to find it, I only 
find a copy in French. I find it in the appendix to the 7nem<nr(S of 
the some-time Emperor Iturbide, among the vouchers of which the 
French call pieces justijtcatives.^^ 



JAMES BUCHAXAX. 191 



JAMES BUCHANAN. 

1 NEED not say. that these are not intended for biographies, they 
are mere sketches, of persons, incidents and things, and assvme no 
higher grounds. James Buchanan, the subject of this sketch, has 
been so long among the most prominent of the distinguished men of 
the United States, and so recently filled so large a space in the public 
eye, that it may seem to some that I might pass him by in these remi- 
niscences ; I can not do so, my mind's eye is upon the distinguished 
men with whom I was associated during a term of six years in the 
Senate of the United States. I know no party lines in these sketches, 
nor am I governed in the least by the opinions of others, I am record- 
ing my own. I speak of Mr. Buchanan as a Senator, his ofl&cial 
transactions in the high places he has filled at home and abroad, are 
before the nation, and will go down as a part of the history of 
the country to posterity. I served six years with Mr. Buchanan : 
I was most fortunate in getting a seat directly between him and 
Silas Wright of New York, and consecjuently in becoming intimate 
with both these distinguished Senators, which was never inter- 
rupted a moment by our political positions; besides being a native of 
eastern Pennsylvania, it was but natural that my position should be 
very agreeable socially, to me. 

Mr. Buchanan in person is tall and strongly built. He was the 
largest Senator of the body during the time he served his State, and is 
now the largest man that has filled the Presidential chair since Gen. 
Washington ; his head is well proportioned to his body, his forehead 
is broad and high, his eye rather sunken, his hair twenty years ago 
was well silvered o'er with grey, it is now white as snow. He carried 
his head leaning to one shoulder. I have seen that some writer speaks 
of this as owing to his eyes, but I think it is an acquired inclination 
of the head from some physical cause. As a debater, Mr. Buchanan 
stood high, among the first, perhaps not the very first. Mr. Clay, Mr. 
Calhoun and Mr. Webster by common consent, in point of eloquence 
and power, seemed to occupy the very first position in that body 
of great men ; still it was very difficult for me to see the difference 
between that trio and Mr. Buchanan, Silas AVright and Mr. Benton. 
Mr. Buchanan always spoke well, sometimes eloquently, his mind was 
stored with facts, his preparation was always commensurate with the 
importance of his subject, and he never spoke unless he was prepared, 
as he often told me ; he believes in preparation, as essential to success. 
I have heard him again and again, when he seemed to speak oif-hand, 
upon the impulse of the moment, but before he closed, he gave con- 



192 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

elusive evidence that he was drawing from previous preparation. He 
was always fomiliai*, gentlemanly and courteous, yet not obsequious. 
I recollect on one occasion, Mr. Dickens (Boz) sat on the side sofa, 
immediately behind our seats. Senators from all parts of the cham- 
ber were pressing forward to take the distinguished English writer by 
the hand. Mr. Buchanan sat writing, I asked him why he did not rush 
forward like the rest. '■ I am in no hurry, let the time come itself 
and the occasion be suitable." On another occasion, there sat behind 
us a red-faced, red-eyed, small man. evidently dissipated. Mr. Bu- 
chanan asked me if I knew him. " Certainly I do, so do you, as you 
voted for him yesterday as our charge to Texas." "I voted for him? 
you must be mistaken ; if you are not, I say that if ever I get to be 
President of the United States, which I do not expect to be, I never 
will send any one abroad to represent this Government, without seeing 
him, and approving his personal appearance." During the personal 
debate between Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun that turned upon the consis- 
tency of Mr. Calhoun as a politician and states-right man, Mr. Calhoun 
had been struggling all day with accumulated facts, against his consist- 
ency, in the hands of his adroit and powerful competitor. As he rose 
the last time, to reply to Mr. Clay, Mr. Buchanan turning. his eye to me, 
" What a fool Calhoun is, to labour to prove his consistency through 
life. I should think myself a great dunce if I was not wiser to day 
than I was twenty years ago." For the purpose of placing Mr. Bu- 
chanan before the reader, as to his style as a debater, I select an extract 
from his reply to Mr. Clay, on the veto question, delivered in the Sen- 
ate of the United States on the 2nd of February, 1842. 

" Sir, the Senator from Kentucky, in one of those beautiful passage.*? 
which always abound in his speeches, has drawn a glowing picture 
of the isolated condition of kings, whose ears the voice of public 
opinion is never permitted to reach, and he has compared their con- 
dition in this particular, with that of the President of the United 
States. Here too, he said, the Chief Magistrate occupied an isolated 
station, where the voice of his country and the cries of its distress 
could not reach his ear. But is there any justice in this comparison? 
Such a picture may be true to the life when drawn for a European 
monarch, but it has no application whatever to a President of the 
United States. He. sir, is no more than the first citizen of the free 
Republic. No form is required in approaching his person, which can 
prevent the humblest of his fellow-citizens from communicating with 
him. In approaching him, a freeman of this land is not compelled 
to decorate himself in fantastic robes or adopt any particular form of 
dress, such as the court etiquette of Europe requires. The President 



JAMES BUCHAXAIs^ 193 

intermingles freely with his fellow-citizens and hears the opinion of 
all. The public press attacks him — political parties in and out 
of Congress assail him, and the thunders of the Senator's own 
denunciatory eloquence are reverberated from the Capitol, and reach 
the White House before its incumbent can lay his head upon his pil- 
low. His every act is subjected to the severest scrutiny, and he reads 
in the newspapers of the day, the decrees of public opinion. Indeed 
it is the privilege of every body to assail him. To contend that such 
a Chief Magistrate is isolated from the people, is to base an argu- 
ment upon mere fiincy, and not upon facts. No sir, the President 
of the United States is more directly before the people, and more 
immediately responsible to the people, than any other department 
of our Government. Woe be to that President who shall ever affect to 
withdraw from the public eye and seclude himself in the recesses of 
the Executive Mansion." 

EXTRACT FROM HIS SPEECH, 

On Mr. Walker's amendment to the loan bill. " I hope the Senate 
will pardon me for a word of disgression. Thanks to the all-pervad- 
ing arrogance and injustice of England, each portion of our Union 
has now a separate just cause of quarrel against that nation peculiarly 
calculated to arouse its feelings of indignation. We have the North- 
eastern Boundary question, the Carolina question, the Creole question, 
the Northwestern Boundary question, and above all, the right of search. 
Should we be forced into war in the present state of the controversy, 
we shall be a united people, and the war will be conducted with all 
our energies, physical and moral. In the present attitude of our 
affairs, I say, then, let us settle all of these questions, or none. All or 
none, ought to he our motto. If we insist on going to war, we could not 
desire a more favorable state of the questions than exists at present 
between the two nations. If all these questions except one should be 
adjusted, we shall be in as much danger of war from the single one 
which may remain, as we are at present, while we would incur the risk 
of destroying that union and harmony among the people of this 
country, which is the surest presage of success and victory. On all 
the questions in dispute between the two nations, except the right 
of search, I would concede much to avoid war and to restore our 
friendly relations provided they can all be adjusted. It is my firm 
conviction that it is due to this country, and to its tranquillity and 
prosperity, that all these questions should be settled together. All or 
none, I again repeat ; without this, you weaken your own strength — 
you play into the hand of your adversary — you destroy to some extent 



194 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

the unanimity of your people; — and, when at last you may be 
compelled to go to war, you will commence the contest with divided 
counsels and interests. I trust and hope that all these agitating 
questions may be settled. I should gladly review each one of them, 
but I feel that at the present moment it would bo discourteous toward 
the distinguished stranger (Lord Ashburton), whom England has 
deputed to negociate upon them. I would not say a word which 
could by possibility interfere with the negociation. 

" I hope he has come among us bearing the olive branch of honor- 
able peace. If he has, there is no man in this country more ready to 
welcome his arrival than myself." 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 195 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 

An intimacy for years in the Senate between the subject of this 
sketch and myself, enables me to speak of him as his high position 
deserves. Samuel L. Southard was long New Jersey's favorite son. 
He held the highest offices within the power of the State and people 
to confer upon him. Groveruor, Supreme Judge, United States Senator. 
He was made Secretary of tlie Navy by Mr. Monroe, when quite a 
young man, and was continued by Mr. Adams through his administra- 
tion. I became acquainted with Mr. Southard in the Senate. At 
the session after the death of General Harrison and the constitutional 
elevation of Mr. Tyler to the Executive chair, Mr. Southard was 
elected president pro tem of the Senate and served as such until his 
death, with occasional absence on jiccount of his last illness. In 
person he was under the common hight, stout built, expanded chest, 
dark hair falling carelessly over his neck, high, retreating forehead, 
eyes dark and piercing, long, straight nose, wide mouth, projecting 
chin. His manners in private circles, were gentlemanly, courteous 
and easy. He was an accomplished scholar, and ranked with the 
finest speakers of the Senate. His voice was clear, musical, and full 
toned. His eloquence was of the impassioned, impressive character, 
sometimes lofty and sublime, often argumentative, always clear and 
distinct. He seldom took part in the small debates, never spoke 
without preparation, and was always heard by the Senate with marked 
attention. As a presiding officer Mr. Southard gave entire satisfaction, 
prompt, impartial in his decisions, courteous and pleasant to all. He 
was a great favorite in the body. As we saw him sinking under his 
protracted disease the sympathy of the whole body was enlisted. The 
circumstances of Mr. Southard were fir from being easy; although mil- 
lions had been subject to his control, not a misapplied dollar ever tarnish- 
ed his fair fame. During the time I was with him in the Senate he made 
many able speeches upon important subjects. I never had any special 
conversation with him on the subject, but judging from one of his 
speeches on the land question, he was a strong American. I only 
knew him as a Whig. Under the rules of the Senate the president is 
authorized to substitute a presiding officer, day by day, in case of 
sickness. It was understood by the Senate that Mr. Southard desired 
the priviledge of substituting a Senator to preside during his illness, 
and on the 22d. of April, 1842, I was requested by his son to visit his 
father in the room of the Vice-President. I found Mr. Southard lying 
on the sofa, very weak, barely able to rise. As I entered he made 
known his business, requested me to preside during his illness. I 



196 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

agreed to do so, the Senate consenting. He then handed me a note 
that he had prepared, which I copy here to show the form he adopted. 

» Hon. 0. H. Smith. 

Dear Sir — Increased indisposition will prevent me from attending 
the meeting of the Senate this morning, and I therefore request, that 
you will perform the duties of the chair. Very respectfully 

Washington, Ajvil 22d., 1842. Samuel L. Southard." 

The indisposition of Mr. Southard increased daily, and by similar 
appointments I continued to preside, with the approbation of the 
Senate, up to the 11th. of May, 1842, when I received my last note 
from him. 

" Hon. 0. H. Smith. 

Dear Sir — Being worse indisposed than I was yesterday, I find 
that I am unable to attend the Senate this morning, and must therefore 
request that you will preside for the day. I am respectfully 

Washington, 3Ia?/ 11th., 1842. Samuel L. Southard." 

Mr. Southard passed rapidly away. His death was announced in 
both Houses, and appropriate ceremonies took place. I was present 
in the House of Representatives, when the melancholy announcement 
was made, and appropriate resolutions proposed by the Representatives 
of the State of New Jersey. The resolutions were read; when I saw 
rising from his seat the venerable form of John Quincy Adams, his 
head bald to his ears, his thin white hair scarcely covering the back 
of his head, addressing the chair. " I rise Mr. Speaker to second the 
resolutions : " his lips quivered, his tongue faltered, his voice failed, 
the tears trickled down his furrowed cheeks, he stood motionless like a 
statue : the House caught the feeling, and in a second there was not a 
dry eye in the Hall. Mr. Southard had been associated with Mr. 
Adams in both Monroe's and his own Cabinet, their friendship was 
deep and abiding. The rush of feeling passed off, Mr. Adams became 
composed, and delivered one of the most beautiful and thrilling addresses 
I ever heard ; brief, sublime, beautiful, such a eulogy as none but Mr. 
Adams could conceive. Mr. Mangum was elected the successor of Mr. 
Southard, and acted as president pro tern until a Vice-President was 
elected and qtialified. 

extract from his speech on the land bill. 
Then came the Federal Constitution which created the Union ; and 
what does it teach ? Its first words are, " We the people of the Uni- 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 197 

ted States." Who were they ? Thy were the citizens of the United 
States. The honorable Senator from South Carolina, said he would 
like to hear a definition of what a citizen is. I have no skill at defi- 
nitions ; but I think I can describe who are, and who are not, citizens. 
At the time the Constitution was adopted, the People of the States 
formed it. The mere holding of land, did not constitute a man a 
citizen, or one of the People of the States. A State may, if she 
pleases, allow an alien to take land, and hold and transmit it by her 
laws, and yet he may not be a citizen of the State, or of the United 
States, he must go beyond that. The moment you allow a man the 
power to vote, the moment you give him power to vote iu the political 
government^ you make him a citizen — one of the People. We need 
not go back to Rome on this matter. The man who possesses political 
power, united to the common rights of person and property, is your 
citizen. He must owe his allegiance here, be subject to all duties, 
possess all rights, or he can not be a citizen with us. The language, 
"We the People of the United States," meant such, and none others. 
They formed their Government for themselves — not for Englishmen 
or Frenchmen — but for themselves alone, and such as they chose 
to admit, upon terms which they should, in their joint capacity pre- 
scribe. The power to prescribe these they could not leave to the 
States. Would you have Maryland say to New Jersey, you shall 
receive this man because I have made him a citizen ? There was, 
therefore, a necessity of some common rule, and the authority to pre- 
scribe it must be placed somewhere ; and it could be placed nowhere 
but in the common councils ; and accordingly, the Constitution declared 
that Congress should have the power " to establish a uniform rule of 
naturalization." Could it be uniform, and yet leave the power to the 
States? Natui-alization is the investing of an alien with the rights 
and privileges of one who is native-born. That is the whole idea. 

When, therefore, the Constitution says that Congress shall have 
power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization, it means this, and 
this only : Congress shall prescribe the terms on which a foreigner, 
an alien, shall be admitted to the rights of a native — be one of " We 
the People." Can there be a uniform rule, unless it is prescribed by 
some common central power, and by that alone? There obviously 
can not. The very object to be attained, requires that the power 
should be vested exclusively in one body, in the Federal Government. 
I hold, therefore, the Constitution of Illinois and so much of the Con- 
stitution of Michigan, as undertakes to admit foreigners to citizenship, 
to be null and void — a violation of the compact. We entered into 
the Union on certain terms and conditions, relative to representation, 



198 EAKLY IJfDIANA TEIALS. 

taxation and other matters. It was necessary for us to say who should 
be admitted as co-partners. But if an individual State may say this, 
the relative position of the States is changed — the conditions at once 
broken and destroyed. Illinois admits, we will suppose, 10,000 per- 
sons to vote, who are aliens not naturalized, whom she has not had 
the consent of other States to admit. What is the effect upon New. 
Jersey ? 

It is this : that foreigners, strangers probably to our principles of 
government, our habits, our interests, — to our very language, may 
out-weigh and overcome the citizens of New Jersey in the choice of 
Chief Magistrate, and in all the management of all our public affairs. 
Is this fair? Is it right? This doctrine puts it in the power of cer- 
tain States so to arrange, as that foreigners shall send enough to make 
up the majority of Representatives on the floor, in the other House, 
and may decide the choice of President. The States it is said, are too 
wise and just and will not do this. I do not say they will, but I 
would rather stand by the Union, and trust the principles of the Con- 
stitution than them. We agreed that there should be a uniform rule 
of naturalization — a uniform rule in New Jersey and in Michigan, 
in Delaware and in Illinois. But is the rule now uniform? No. — 
And if the other States should proceed after the example set by Illin- 
ois and Michigan, we shall soon have as many rules as there are States. 
I am not willing that such an unconstitutional and pernicious doctrine 
shall pass without giving it my condemnation. I insist that it is a 
violation of the Constitution. Read the powers granted in that instru- 
ment to Congress, and see if, where similar language is used, the power 
is not always exclusive. This point has been brought before the 
Supreme Court, and there was no dissentient voice in regard to it. I 
dread the consequences of this doctrine, more especially when I see 
such a bill as this, tempting aliens to come, giving them our lauds, 
that the States may make them citizens. I am not willing that the 
members of the House of Representatives shall represent aliens, for 
in process of time, aliens may come to be a majority, and may choose 
any Chief Magistrate. This law may make them so numerous in 
Wisconsin and Iowa as to control your native vote and make laws for 
your States. I will not leave it to one State to say, that they shall be 
permitted thus to control the general interests of all the States. Whom 
may not some of the States make citizens ? Cast your eyes in certain 
directions, and you can readily see what miglit be done. And recol- 
lect that the moment a State has pronounced a man a citizen, the 
shield of the Constitution is placed over him for his protection, and he 
must be protected as a citizen^ every where in all the States. 



SAMUEL L. SOUTHARD. 199 

I entreat gentlemen to pause before they establish this doctrine. 
For myself, I will not hold out inducements either to our own citizens 
or to aliens to come and take possession of our public lands. It is a 
proposition obnoxious to the laws and to the Constitution, and to all 
the fundamental principles of our Government and Union, and I must 
resist it. I am willing foreigners shall come and enjoy all the privi- 
leges which I do — I am willing to have them as neighbors, and as 
friends, and let them stand by our side in battle — hut they must cease 
to he Aliens first. 



200 EARLY IXDIAI^A TRIALS. 



VISIT TO MEMPHIS. 

Late in June, 1853, 1 left honie for Memphis, Tennessee, on matters 
connected with the contemplated line of railroad from Indianapolis 
South by Evansville, and Henderson, Kentucky, to Memphis. When 
I arrived at Henderson the great barbecue was just coming off, in 
the grove back of the city, upon the occasion of the commencement 
of the Henderson and Xashville Railroad. I accepted the offer of a 
ride to the grove where I found a very large assembly of ladies and 
gentlemen already seated under a beautiful bower, bands of music 
playing, companies of infantry marching, and counter-marching, 
troops of horse parading, and cannon firing, as I walked up to the 
bower. The president of the day invited me to take a seat on the 
stand ; of course I could not decline ; but the moment I reach the 
seat, he announced to the large audience that " A distinguished son 
of Indiana would address the audience." I was taken wholly by 
surprise, entirely unprepared, but there was no backing out, and I 
went ahead with an extemporaneous speech of some hour and a half. 
The attention was all I could have desired and the applause more than 
I could have expected under the most favorable circumstances. The 
speaking closed. I received the thanks of the President, and his arm 
to the table, at the barbecue out in the grove. It was the first time I 
had ever seen a Kentucky barbecue ; I confess it come fully up to my 
expectations, — three tables some hundred yards in length, each covered 
from end to end with roast beef, mutton, whole pigs and calves, pies 
and puddings, bread and butter, indeed with all the substantials of 
life and the luxuries of the season, while good humor, hilarity, and 
pleasantness reigned. Henderson is a beautiful place located on a high 
bluff on the Ohio river some twelve miles below Evansville ; on the 
Kentucky side, it is the residence of the Dixons and Powells, and 
other distinguished men of Kentucky. 

The next morning our steamer stopped at Paducah at the mouth 
of the Tennessee, where I landed and met my old friend Lynn Boyd, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives in Congress. It was 
arranged that I should speak that evening in the court-house ; 
posters were soon up over the city, and at candle-lighting I met a 
crowded house, spoke some two hours. Got aboard of the boat before 
she left, at daylight stepped ashore at Cairo, ran down the Mississippi 
a day and night, and landed safely at the beautiful city of Memphis. 
This is one of the finest locations on the Mississippi river between 
St. Louis and New Orleans, and is destined to become one of the 
largest cities in the Southwest, especially since the completion of the 



VISIT TO MEMPHIS. 201 

great Memphis and Charleston Railroad. On the evening of the first 
of July, by request, I addressed a large audience of the citizens of 
3Iemphis over two hours in one of their halls. It was beginning to 
be feared that the yellow fever would visit the city, the news from 
New Orleans had for a few days become alarming ; I determined to 
leave on the first boat for home, but learned that there would be no 
boat up before Saturday night, the third of July. Saturday morning 
had come, when Col. Williamson, president of the Little Rock Rail- 
road, invited me to ride out with him on the train of the Memphis 
and Charleston Railroad to La Grange, where there was to be a cele- 
bration of the opening of the road to that place. I consented and we 
took our seats on an open, hind car, where we had a full view of the 
surrounding country as we passed. The country from Memphis to 
La Grange was beautifully picturesque, — fine groves surround the 
dwellings of the planters, extensive cotton-fields were just coming 
in bloom, the first I had ever seen. The day was pleasant and the ride 
delightful ; at eleven o'clock we reached the station at La Grange, and 
left the ears for the grove where the stand was erected on rising 
ground, with the extensive shaded seats in front. Col. Williamson 
and myself were walking toward the stand when we were met by 
the president of the day. " Good morning, Col., I am glad to see you, 
we are in a bad fix." " How so." "We have an immense assembly, 
the ladies are seated, our orator has not come and we have nobody to 
address them." " You are not so badly off as you think, here is a 
man that can speak to your audience," pointing to me. The president. — 
" Can you speak? " " Yes, a little." " Will you address that audience?" 
" If you say so." " What is your name, and where are you from ? " 
" My name is Oliver H. Smith, I live in Indiana." " That will do, 
how soon can you be ready to speak ? " "I am ready now." We 
walked to the stand, ascended the steps to the platform, and before I 
reached the seat, the president at the top of his voice, " Ladies and 
gentleman, I have the pleasure of introducing General Smith, of the 
State of Indiana, who will now address you." I made no such pre- 
tensions to military title ; but in the South, military men stand all the 
time a head and shoulders higher with the people than common men, and 
it is proper for the president in introducing a total stranger, in his own 
justification, in case I had failed, to have my military title to fall 
back upon. I immediately arose and bowed to the audience. As I 
threw my eyes around me from the stand, I beheld the most splen- 
did preparations I had ever seen for a celebration. We were in the 
midst of a beautiful grove, the front bower covering the extended 
seats, overhung with bushes, and evergreens ' the fine companies, the 



202 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

city guards, the infantry in full uniform stationed in front, and on 
the sides, the dragoons defiling, and moving around the bower with 
their beautiful horses, and splendid uniform. The bands of music, 
on either side of the stand, on the right at a distance the smoking 
barbecue in an adjoining grove was plainly in sight. My eye measured 
ten thousand on the ground. The bands were playing Hail Columbia, 
the music ceased. 

''Ladies and gentlemen, I am a stranger in the State of Tennessee. 
I am a candidate for no office, and politics is not my theme, therefore 
you have nothing to expect from me to day but the truth, and I have 
nothing to ask of you but the courtesy of a hearing. You have a great 
State, rich in all that nature can bestow upon you, if you are not pros- 
perous and happy it is your own fault. I have listened to your bands 
of music, as they played the national air of Hail Columbia, but the 
still more delightful music to your ears should be the rumbling 
of the cars and the whistling of the locomotives of the flying trains 
as they greet your ears, that should speak in a language not to be mis- 
understood, that Tennessee is rising from her long slumber, resolved to 
enter the field of enterprise with the Northern States. You now stand 
upon the same platform the Northern and Eastern States stood on years 
ago ; then the great men were merged in politics, as you are, now they 
are engaged in the great enterprises of the day, and the country is 
rising in population and power. The time was when the patriotic sons 
of Tennessee rallied under the standard of their hero and repelled the 
enemy, in the glorious battle of New Orleans. A greater enemy to the 
State of Tennessee than the British army, has long fettered her pros- 
perity, commanded by a greater general than Packenham, — I mean 
Gen. Apathy, Gen. Indifference. And a greater general than Gen. 
Jackson, may command your forces, — I mean Gen. Will, Gen. Deter- 
mination." This is but a sketch of the commencement of the speech. 
The speech lasted an hour and a half, and was frequently applauded. 
Col. Haskell, Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Tresevant, Mr. Prior, and Dr. Booth, 
made short speeches, the bands played Yankee Doodle, and we all 
went to the sumptuous table in the adjoining grove, where every thing 
was done up in the finest style of a Tennessee barbecue. I returned 
that evening to Memphis and at twelve o'clock at night stepped from 
the wharf-boat upon the Steamer Columbus, direct from New Orleans, 
upward bound, with a number on board low with the yellow fever; 
several died on the passage. That dreadful epidemic was then just 
making its appearance in New Orleans. As connected with this 
sketch I give the notice of the celebration that appeared in the Mem- 
phis press, on the next Tuesday, the 5th of July. 



VISIT TO MEMPHIS. 203 

THE RAILROAD CELEBRATION. 

Saturday last was a great day for La Grange, and will mark a new 
era in tlie history of that thriving village. The number of persons in 
attendance is variously estimated at from six to eight thousand, and 
but for the heat and dust, the time would have passed off most delight- 
fully. The preparations were commodious and ample, and not a sin- 
gle accident occurred to mar the harmony of the occasion. Speeches 
were made by Hon. 0. H. Smith, of Indiana. Cols. Haskell, Lindsay, 
Tresevant, Pryor and Dr. Booth, after which the vast multitude repaired 
to the grove where the tables were spread, and partook of a most ele- 
gant dinner, prepared gratuitously by the public-spirited citizens of 
La Grange and vicinity. Memphis was largely represented on the 
occasion in the persons of the City Guards, Fire Companies, and last, 
though not least, a goodly number of her fair daughters. Three trains 
of cars left during the morning, every one of which seemed a living 
mass of human beings, and it is estimated that at least two thousand 
of our citizens took passage upon them. It was our fortune to get a 
stand (for we could not get a seat) on the 8 o'clock train which carried 
up the Guards and Fire Companies, who, with their engines, banners, 
uniforms and gay plumes, made one of the most imposing spectacles 
it has ever been our good fortune to witness. 

Mississippi was also represented by a splendid company of horse- 
men from Lamar, who in connexion with the City Guards, went through 
some very fine and striking evolutions during the day, adding greatly 
to the interest of the occasion. We left the ground on the first train 
after dinner, and are unable to speak of what transpired afterward. 
Altogether it was, to us at least, a most pleasant day, and we can not 
ascribe too much praise to the public spirit of the citizens of La Grange, 
and to the interest wdiich they have manifested in aiding and pushing 
forward one of the greatest works of the age, the Memphis and Charles- 
ton Railroad. May they in due time reap their reward. 



204 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



SILAS WRIGHT. 

The subject of this sketch was one of the greatest men in the nation. 
I had the pleasure of sitting by his side for six years in the Senate, 
and the honor of a chjse, j^ersonal intimacy with him; we differed 
politically, but personally we were friends. In person, he was about 
a fair, medium size ; strongly made, full, ample chest, large head, capa- 
cious forehead, inclining to baldness, hair thin, amber light, eyes dark- 
blue ; features tine; dress plain, manners retiring, almost to diffidence. 
Gov. Wright possessed a mind of the first order in the body. As 
a speaker, he was plain, strong, clear, sometimes eloquent; not what 
the galleries call eloquence, his was the eloquence growing out of facts, 
plainly, forcibly presented, soft words and hard arguments. His 
mind was not the Niagara pitching over the cataract, raising clouds, 
and creating rainbows to the mental vision of his hearers, but rather 
the steady flow of a strong current of the Mississij^pi, bearing upon 
its bosom the wealth of nations. Gov. AVright had great weight 
with his party, he really led, while he seemed to follow. His great 
attachment to Mr. Van Buren was well known ; while he was chair- 
man of the Committee on Finance, a Senator charged him with taking 
his cue from Mr. Van Buren, at the White House. Mr. Clay rose 
and jocosely remarked, " I rise, Mr. President, to correct the Senator. 
I do not knovv' that there is any cue in the case, but if there is it is 
more likely that the White House took the cue from the chairman of 
the Committee of Finance." Gov. Wright, bowing, -'A high compli- 
ment, Mr. Clay." 

Gov. Wright had one advantage over most Senators, he was always 
cool and collected, nothing could disturb him or throw him off 
his balance. I never saw him so excited as even to appear so, much 
less to make him lose sight of the proprieties of debate. He was said 
to love his ease, and to spend his vacation in the country, at his home, 
fishing and gunning ; this may be true, but if so, his active mind was 
no doubt drawing to it and arranging the materials for the next ses- 
sion, of which he always had at command an inexhaustible store. 

As I became familiar with him, he indulged in first-rate anecdotes, 
with which I could fill the space I have allotted for this sketch. On 
one occasion he was in the Senate of New York with Gen. Erastus 
Root. The General was fond of personal display in his dress. One 
morning he came to the Senate with buff breeches, white silk stock- 
ings, knee and shoe buckles. Gov. Wright bet a bottle of wine 
that he could make the General go home and take off the breeches, 
and put on plain pantaloons, without speaking to him on the subject ; 



SILAS WEIGHT. 205 

It seemed to be a very fearful risk, but to tbe sequel. The Governor 
stepped up to the General, and taking him kindly by the hand, said, 
" Good morning. General," then turning his eyes upon the buff 
breeches, and looking them over for a minute, "how do you do?" then 
re-examining the breeches with a quizzical look, paying no attention to 
what the General said, 'but continuing his remarks, now a word, then 
a look at the breeches. The General at length left abruptly, was 
absent some minutes, and returned dressed in a plain pair of black 
pantaloons. The wine was drunk with a hearty laugh, in which the 
General joined. 

On another occasion, while the Governor was Comptroller of New 
York, a penny paper, every morning for months, had been publish-' 
ing scurrilous articles against him, without his having taken the least 
notice of them. One morning the Editor met him, and, apologizing 
for the article of that morning, remarked that he had ascertained that 
it was not true. '' I do not understand you." "Why I have found 
out that the article I published this morning about you was not true." 
" Me ! you haven't been writing against me, have you? " " Yes, for 
six months." " I have not heard of it." " Then I'll write no more." 

The Governor told me how he got along with his enemies when they 
wrote against him : " If they publish the truth about me, I say nothing ; 
one half of the people will say it is all a lie, one fourth will never see 
it, and the current affairs of the next day will cover it up from the 
sight of the other fourth. If it is a lie, I let it bury itself, unless the 
author is worthy of my attention, and I think I can make capital by 
exposing him." 

It is known that Gov. Wright declined accepting the candidacy 
for Vice President of the United States, on the ticket with Mr. Polk, 
for the reason that his friend, Mr. Van Buren, had been defeated at 
Baltimore by the two-thirds I'ule, and the friends of Gen. Cass, and 
Col. Polk had then been nominated over him. Had Gov. Wright 
continued to stand aloof from that contest, and refuse to let his name 
be used as a candidate for the office of Governor of New York, at that 
time, no one doubted but that Mr. Clay would have carried the State 
against Mr. Polk, but the great popularity of Gov. Wright, who 
was opposed by Millard Fillmore, and the election coming on for Gov- 
ernor and President at the same time, the tickets became identified, 
and the Polk and Wright ticket succeeded over the Clay and Fillmore 
ticket by an inconsiderable majority. I have good reason to know 
that it was on his part, a great sacrifice to party, that he made with 
great reluctance, preferring to remain in the Senate. He died while 
filling the office of Governor of New York, in the meridian of his years. 



206 EAELY INDIA^^A TRIALS. 

Had he lived, it was evident that the eyes of the Democratic party were 
looking to him as their candidate for the Presidency. 

I give for the eye of the reader, as I have of other Senators, a few 
extracts from one of his great speeches, on Mr. Clay's resolutions, to 
show his style of argument. 

EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECH. 

"A single other preliminary remark would bring him to an exami- 
nation of the resolutions themselves, and of the merits of the questions 
raised by them. He was relieved from some of the most serious diffi- 
culties which had, upon some former occasions surrounded this subject 
of an adjustment of our tariff of duties upon imports, by being able 
to approach the discussion with the conviction that two great, and 
leading, and important principles in regard to it, were now perfectly 
settled and universally admitted, by all men of all parties, in this coun- 
try. They were the following : 

" 1. That revenue should be the object and inducement for the 
imposition of duties upon imports, and that every other consideration 
should be merely incidental to this great and necessary object. 

" 2. That the wants of the Government, economically and properly 
administered, should be the measure of revenue to be raised from any 
source, or in any manner. There had been a time within his remem- 
brance, when both these principles were strongly contradicted, and 
when protection to domestic interests was the ground upon which 
imposition of duties were urged, and the revenue to be derived was a 
merely incidental consideration. Indeed, when these plain principles 
were first announced, in the message of a late President, as those which 
should guide and govern this branch of legislation, they were looked 
upon by many as hostile to domestic interests, if not unpatriotic in 
themselves. They soon, however, came to be more carefully and 
maturely considered, and the consequence has been their universal 
adoption. They are enacted by the Compromise law. They are found 
soundly and distinctly put forth in the Finance Eeport of the pres- 
ent Secretary of the Treasury, and he was glad to meet with their 
strong repetition in a late report from a committee of the House of 
Representatives, on the subject of a fiscal agent. These great and 
leading principles he hoped he might consider as ' stakes ' already set, 
and they should be kept carefully in the eye and mind of every states- 
man who attempts to mark out future action upon this all important 
subject." * =!= =i= '-^ * * * * * * 

Mr. W. said, " Gentlemen might suppose these were opinions of his 
own, theoretically formed. They were not so, solely ; but he had 



SILAS WRIGHT. 207 

already facts to rest them upon. A correspondent in New York, had 
transmitted to him an extract of a most sensible letter from capitalists, 
in Holland, who had already made investments in American securi- 
ties. It showed a minute understanding on the part of these saga- 
cious gentlemen, between cause and effect, in these matters of credit 
here, which, he regretted to believe, were much too limitedly known, 
and much too little appreciated, by ourselves. Senators must not for- 
get that money-lenders are the most cautious of men — that they watch 
the policy and providence of those to whom they give credit ; and that 
confidence in them, once wounded, is a sickly plant, and can only be 
restored to vigor and health again, by the most careful and faithful 
culture, and the most active and substantial nutriment. * * * 
"Another, and still more important consideration, weighed heavily 
with him. The practice of sending Congressional speeches had in- 
creased within the last few years to an enormous extent, and had come 
to be a matter expected by the constituent and demanded from the rep- 
resentative, as a part of his official duty. It had gone to such excess 
within the last few years as, in his judgment, to have become injurious 
instead of being beneficial, to the constituent body, and most palpably 
so to the business of legislation here. The great mass of Congres- 
sional speeches now take their character from this practice. They are 
made not to be listened to by the body to which they are addressed, 
but to be read by the constituents to whom they were sent. Hence 
they are necessarily political and partisan to much too great an extent, 
and much beyond what they would be, if simply intended for the 
legislative body. The debates are protracted too in length by this 
practice, for the speaker is well aware that the debates upon the ques- 
tion can never reach those whom he wishes to address, and hence he 
is compelled, in his single speech, to give so full a view of the whole 
ground of debate, as to enable the reader to appreciate the force of his 
remarks and his views. This, too, must be repeated by each speaker, 
because his speech is to go to a different class of readers. Mr. W. 
had not for a long time entertained a doubt that this practice of circu- 
lating the Congressional speeches under the franks of the members, 
had contributed more than any one single cause to the constant increase 
of the duration of the long session." 



208 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 

In the month of October in the year 1849, the great Pacific Railroad 
Convention was about to be held at St. Lonis. The Eastern stage 
arrived with several distinguished men, Mr. Stoddard, Mr. Lowe, Mr. 
A'^ancleve from Dayton ; and we all left together for St. Louis in the 
stage. Our ride over a bad mud road was not very pleasant ; but we 
made all up by good humor and hilarity. The second day we entered 
the Grand Prairie, stretching across the State of Illinois; it was the 
first time I had ever seen it; to say it was grand, would not convey an 
idea, it was magnificent to my eyes, one grand view all around us, not 
a tree to obstruct the sight to the horizon ; here and there in the dis- 
tance, was seen the cabin of the settler, with its curling smoke ; now 
and then, the deer and the prairie-wolf would spring up and run away 
at the top of their speed ; flocks of prairie-chickens flew whizzing 
through the air, and occasionally, wild turkeys, with their straight necks 
and upright heads, were seen above the grass of the prairie. I had 
seen the broad waters of Erie and Michigan, the Atlantic ocean, the 
Falls of Niagara ; but thought the'Grand Prairie scarcely surpassed 
by either. What is it yet to be. when settlement and cultivation shall 
mark it for their own ? In the evening, St. Louis with her steeples 
and towers, was seen in the distance across the Father of Waters — 
Bloody Island, as it were in the channel, between lUinoistown and the 
city. We were soon at the Planters House, a first-class hotel, 
crowded with guests from all parts of the United States and Europe, 
of every, language, kindred and tongue. St. Louis was even at that 
day a great commercial city, but she was only the infant in the cradle, 
giving promise of the future man. 

The next day the convention was to meet in the rotunda of the City 
Hall. I went over early, and was gratified to find myself in the midst 
of my friends — Col. Benton, Edward Bates, Gen. Hill, Col. Bowlin, 
Col. Curtus, Judge Birch, Judge Douglass, Solomon W. Roberts, Col. 
Darcie, Richard AV. Thompson, Albert S. White, William K. Edwards, 
Charles F. Cruft and others. The time for organization came, and 
Judge Stephen A. Douglass was unanimously elected President, Judge 
Geyer one of the Vice Presidents, and a full complement of officers 
were selected. The circular tier seats in the rotunda, holding some 
5000, all filled with the separate delegations from the different States; 
the central platform Avas occupied by the officers and invited guests. 

.Judge Douglass in taking the chair, made a strong esplanator}- speech, 
stating fully the object of tlie convention. The Judge is a short, thick, 
well-set man. large head, broad high forehead, dark hair and eyes. 



ST. LOUIS CONVENTIO^^ 209 

wide mouth, good features, broad expanded chest, powerful voice, 
delivery good and distinct to the largest audience ; his manner is ardent, 
impulsive and inflammatory, he is well adapted to large audiences, and 
must continue to be one of the popular speakers of the United States. 
The committees were appointed, resolutions referred, when Col. Ben- 
ton took the main stand and delivered one of the most beautiful 
addresses I have ever heard. He pointed out the route of the Pacific 
Railroad, making St. Louis the starting-point ; gave a graphic descrip- 
tion of the country, through which the road must pass ; he most beau- 
tifully painted to the imagination, Columbus standing upon the top 
of the Rocky Mountains, with one hand pointing to the Atlantic, and 
the other to the Pacific, while the trains with their thousands of pas- 
sengers from Europe and Asia were flying by. I had often heard the 
Colonel, but I thought ho surpassed himself that day. The conven- 
tion adjourned. Next morning the committees were to report ; quite 
early the convention was called to order by the president ; the com- 
mittees were still out, when Col. Curtus of Iowa, rose and ofiered a 
resolution in substance, that to avoid all Constitutional difficulties in 
the construction of the Pacific Railroad, it should commence out-side 
of the States, in one of the Territories, over which Congress had 
unquestionable jurisdiction ; this seemed to be forestalling the report of 
the committee on that subject. The resolution was read by the secretary. 
The president rose to put the question. I looked arovind me to see 
if any other person was rising to speak, but no one rose. It was not 
my intention to say any thing before the report of the committee came 
in, but the test question was before the convention. I rose and ad- 
dressed the chair. The audience. — " Who is it ? " One of the Indiana 
delegation said, " Mr. Smith of Indiana." — " The main stand." I left 
the central platform, walked over to the main stand near the chair, 
from which Mr. Benton had spoken the day before, and addressed the 
convention for some hour and a half, upon the general subject of the 
Pacific Railroad, its location, its construction, its preservation, the Con- 
stitutional powers of the Government over it, and its great importance 
as a national work ; I felt that I had the ear of the convention, I main- 
tained that St. Louis was the natural starting-point for the main line, 
that there might be two diverging branches on the east side of the 
Rocky Mountains, the one finding its terminus at Memphis on the 
Mississippi, and the other at Chicago on Lake Michigan ; that on the 
west side of the mountains, there should be two lines, the one termin- 
ating at San Francisco, California, and the other at the mouth of the 
Willamette Valley in Oregon. The Constitutional power was touched 
in the speech ; I held that it could make no possible difference whether 
14 



210 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the road commenced in the State of Missouri, or west of the States in 
the ■ Territories, as these Territories would become States before the 
road could be constructed, besides, it would require as great an exer- 
cise of Constitutional power to keep up and run the road, and take tolls 
upon it, as it would be to construct it in the first place by Government. 

As I closed. Judge Douglass called Vice President Geyer to the 
chair, and resigned the presidency for the purpose of taking part in 
the debate on the floor. He replied at once to my speech with much 
warmth, and in the opinion of many with conclusive success. I did 
not feel that my Constitutional argument was met by the distinguished 
Senator ; he suggested that a provision could be inserted in the State 
constitution of Territories on the line when admitted ; that the Uni- 
ted States shall have the power to construct and operate the road 
through the State, after it was admitted into the Union. The sugges- 
tion looked plausible, but was it sound ? I suppose not, as additional 
Constitutional powers can only be conferred upon Congress by an 
amendment of that instrument, in the manner provided in it, and can 
not be given by the constitution of a State. 

The majority of the committee reported in accordance with the views 
of Judge Douglass; my friend Richard W. Thompson, who concurred 
M ith me, dissented from the majority, and moved to strike out the major- 
ity report, and insert a resolution placing the matter on the ground we 
maintained. Mr. Thompson addressed the convention upon his motion 
in a speech of some two hours with great eloquence and power, and 
was followed by Solomon W. Roberts and Col. Darcie in strong 
speeches, all maintaining the St. Louis commencement for the main 
line, and Chicago and Memphis for the termini of the branches. 3Ir. 
Thompson's motion prevailed without a count, and the convention 
adjourned to meet at Philadelphia the next summer. A large number 
of the delegates went down the river, to attend the Memphis Railroad 
Convention the next week. I ran down the Mississippi next day to 
Cairo, took a gteamer for Louisville, and reached home in safety. 

The convention at Philadelphia, was held the next summer, and 
resolutions similar to those adopted at St. Louis, were passed with 
great unanimity. The subject has been before Congress at every ses- 
sion since, but nothing has been done, except some explorations and 
reports. It seems now to be pretty well settled, that the great Pacific 
Railroad, will be constructed on the central route, through the south 
pass of the Rocky Mountains, by associated enterprise, with the col- 
lateral aid of the Government, in the shape of grants of lands. The 
great importance of this national work must ultimately secure its con- 
struction, and I yet look forward to its completion in my aay. 



POETS or INDIANA. 211 

POETS OF INDIANA. 

Is there one other State in the Union, that has produced finer 
poets than John Finley, Esq., of Richmond ; Mrs. Julia L. Dumont. 
of Vevay; Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton, Rev. Sydney Dyer, John B. 
Dillon, Esq., Rev. James Greene, and Henry W. Ellsworth, Esq., of 
Indianapolis? They have all delighted the public with their prose 
and poetry. The Rev. Sydney Dyer has published a neat volume 
of songs and ballads, a casket of beautiful gems. Mrs. Julia L. 
Dumont has given us her interesting " Life Sketches from Common 
Paths." Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton will, no doubt, publish in book 
form, her poems and interesting letters from Switzerland. The 
poems of Henry W. Ellsworth, Esq., were written while he was our 
(^lar^e at Stockholm. The " Hoosier's Nest" was written by John 
Finley, Esq., as a New Year's address in 1830, for the Indiana Journal. 
It has never been published entire in any other form I believe, the 
latter verses have run through the press in America and England. I 

ffive it entire. 

THE HOOSIER'S NEST. 

BY JOHN FINLEY, ESQ. 

Untaught the language of the schools, 
Nor versed in scientific rules, 
The humble hard may not presume 
The Literati to illume, 
Or classic cadences indite, 
Attuned "to tickle ears polite ; " 
Contented if his strains may pass. 
The ordeal of the common mass, 
And raise an anti-critic smile, 
The brow of labor to beguile. 

But ever as his mind delights 

To follow Fancy's airy flights, 

Some object of terrestrial mien 

Uncourteously obtrudes between, 

And rudely scatters to the winds 

The tangled threads of thought he spins. 

Yet why invoke imagination 

To picture out a new creation, 

When Nature with a lavish hand 

Has formed a more than Fairy land 

For us ? An Eldorado real. 

Surpassing even the ideal ! 



212 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

Then wlio can view the glorious West, 
With all her hopes for coming time, 
And hoard his feelings unexpressed 
In poetry, or prose — or Rhyme ; 
What mind and matter uurevealed, 
Shall unborn ages here disclose ? 
What latent treasures long concealed, 
Be disinterred from dark repose ? 
Here science shall impel her car. 
O'er blended valley, hill and plain, 
* While Liberty's bright natal star 

Shines twinkling on her own domain. 

Yes, Land of the West, thou art happy and free ! 

And thus ever more may thy hardy sons be, 

Whilst thy ocean-like prairies are spread far and wide, 

Or a tree of thy forest shall tower in pride. 

Blest Indiana ; in thy soil 
Are found the sure rewards of toil, 
Where harvest, purity and worth 
May make a paradise on earth. 
With feelings proud we contemplate 
The rising glory of our State; 
Nor take oflFense by application 
Of its good-natured appellation. 
Our hardy yeomanry can smile, 
At tourists of " the sea-girt Isle," 
Or wits who traveled at the gallop, 
Like Basil Hall, or Mrs. Trollope. 
' Tis true among the crowds that roam,. 
To seek for fortune, or a home. 
It happens that we often find 
Empiricism of every kind. 

A strutting Fop, who boasts of knowledge, 
Acquired at some far Eastern college ; 
Expects to take us by surprise. 
And dazzle our astonished eyes. 
He boasts of learning skill, and talents, 
Which in the scale, would Andes balance. 
Cuts widening swathes from day to day, 
And in a month he runs away. 



POETS OF INDIANA. 213 

Not thus the honest son of toil, 
Who settles here to till the soil, 
And with intentions just and good. 
Acquires an ample livelihood : 
He is (and not the little-great) 
The bone and sinew of the State. 
With six-horse team to one-horse cart, 
We hail them here from every part. 
And some you'll see sans shoes or socks on, 
With snake-pole and a yoke of oxen : 
Others with pack-horse, dog and rifle, 
Make emigration quite a trifle. 

The emigrant is soon located — 

In Hoosier life initiated — 

Erects a cabin in the woods. 

Wherein he stows his household goods. 

At first, round logs and clap-board roof, 

With puncheon floor, quite carpet-proof. 

And paper windows, oiled and neat. 

His edifice is then complete, 

When four clay balls, in form of plummet, 

Adorn his wooden chimney's summit ; 

Ensconced in this, let those who can 

Find out a truly happier man. 

The little youngsters rise around him, 

So numerous they quite astound him ; 

Each with an axe, or wheel in hand. 

And instinct to subdue the land. 

Ere long the cabin disappears, 

A spacious mansion next he rears ; 

His fields seem widening by stealth, 

An index of increasing wealth ; 

And when the hives of Hoosiers swarm, 

To each is given a noble farm. 

These are the seedlings of the State, 

The stamina to make the great. 

' Tis true her population various. 

Find avocations multifarious ; 

But having said so much, ' twould seem 

No derogation to my theme. 



214 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Were I, to circumscribe the space, 

To picture but a single case ; 

And if my muse be not serapbic 

I trust you'll find her somewhat graphic. 

I'm told in riding some where West, 
A stranger found a Hoosiers Nest, 
In other words a Buckeye Cabin, 
Just big enough to hold Queen Mob in. 
Its situation low, but airy, 
Was on the borders of a prairie ; 
And fearing he might be benighted 
He hailed the house, and then alighted. 
The Hoosier met him at the door. 
Their salutations soon were o'er. 
He took the stranger's horse aside 
And to a sturdy sapling tied. 
Then having stripped the saddle off. 
He fed him in a sugar trough. 

The stranger stooped to enter in, 

The entrance closing with a pin ; 

And manifested strong desire 

To seat him by the log-heap fire. 

Where half a dozen Hoosieroons, 

With mush and milk, tin-cups and spoons, 

White heads, bare feet and dirty faces, 

Seemed much inclined to keep their places ; 

But madam, anxious to display 

Her rough but undisputed sway, 

Her offspring to the ladder led, 

And cuffed the youngsters up to bed. 

Invited shortly to partake. 
Of venison, milk and Johnny-cake, 
The stranger made a hearty meal. 
And glances round the room would steal. 
One side was lined with divers garments. 
The other, spread with skins of varmints; 
Dried pumpkins over head were strung, 
Where venison hams in plenty hung ; 
Two rifles placed above the door, 



POETS OF INDIANA. 215 

Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor — 

In short the domicil was rife 

With specimens of Hoosier life. 

The host, who' centered his affections 

On game, and range and quarter sections^ 

Discoursed his weary guest for hours 

Till Somnus' all-composing powers, 

Of sublunary cares bereft ' em ; 

And then — No matter how the story ended, 

The application I intended. 

Is from the famous Scottish poet, 

Who seemed to feel as well as know it, 

That burly chiels and clever hizzies, 

Are bred in sic a way as this is. 



BACHELORS' HALL.— (Irish Imitation.) 

BY JOHN FINLEY ESQ. 

Bachelors' Hall ; "What a quare looking place it is ! 

Kape me from sich all the days of my life ! 
Sure, but I think what a burnin' disgrace it is, 

Niver at all to be gettin' a wife. 
See the ould Bachelor, gloomy and sad enough, 

Placing his tay-kettle over the fire ; 
Soon it tips over — Saint Patrick ! he's mad enough. 

If he were present to fight with the Squire. 
Then like a hog in a mortar -bed wallowin, 

Awkard enough, see him knading his dough ; 
Troth ! If the bread he could ate widout swallowing, 

How it would favor his palate, you know. 
His dish-cloth is missing — the pigs are devouring it, 

In the pursuit he has battered his shin ; 
A plate wanted washing — Grrimalkin is scouring it, 

Tunder and turf ! what a pickle he's in ! 

His meal being over, the table's left setting so, 

Dishes, take care of yourselves if you can ! 
But hunger returns, — then he's pining and fretting so 

Oeh ! Let him alone for a baste of a man ! 
Pots, dishes, pans, and such greasy commodities, 

Ashes and pratie-skins kiver the floor; 
His cupboard's a store-house of comical oddities, 

Sich as had niver been neis-hbors before. 



-16 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Late in the uiglit then, he goes to bed shiverin' 
Niver the bit is the bed made at all ! 
He crapes like a tarapin under the kiverin ; 
Bad luck to the picture of Bachelors' Hall. 



PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE. 

BY MRS. SARAH T. BOLTON. 

Voyager upon life's sea, 

To yourself be true, 
And wher'er your lot may be. 

Paddle your own canoe. 
Never, though the winds may rave, 

Palter or look back ; 
But upon the darkest wave 

Leave a shining track. 

Nobly dare the wildest storm. 

Stem the hardest gale. 
Brave of heart and strong of arm 

You will never fail. 
When the world is cold and dark, 

Keep your aim in view ; 
And toward the beacon-work, 

Paddle your own canoe. 

Every wave that bears you on 

To the silent shore. 
Prom its sunny source is gone 

To return no more. 
Then let not an hour's delay. 

Cheat you of your due. 
But, while it is called to day. 

Paddle your own canoe. 

If your birth denied you wealth, 

Lofty state and power, 
Honest fame and hardy health. 

Are a better dower. 
But if these will not suffice, 

Golden gain pursue ; 
And to gain the glittering prize. 

Paddle your own canoe. 



POETS OF INDIANA. 217 

Would you wrest the wreatli of fame 

From tlie liand of fate ? 
Would you write a deathless name 

With the good and great? 
Would you bless your fellow-men ? — 

Heart and soul imbue 
With the holy task, and then, — 

Paddle your own canoe. 

Would you crush the giant wrong. 

In the world's free fight? 
With a spirit brave and strong. 

Battle for the right. 
And to break the chains that bind 

The many to the few, — 
To enfranchise slavish mind, — 

Paddle your own canoe. 

Nothing great is lightly won. 

Nothing won is lost ; 
Every good deed, nobly done. 

Will repay the cost. 
Leave to Heaven, in humble trust, 

All you will to do : 
But if you succeed, you must 

Paddle your own canoe. 



A HOME ON THE MOUNTAIN. 

BY REV. SYDNEY DYER. 

Let others sigh for a valley home, 

Where the brooks run murmuring by, 
I'll build my cot on the mountain's dome, 

Where it leans to the deep blue sky. 
I love to dwell where the eagles soar. 

And perch on its starry crown. 
The wild winds howl, and the thunders roar. 

As the storm comes rattling down ; 
Then sigh who will for a valley home. 

Where the brooks run murmuring by, 
I'll build my cot on the mountain's dome, 

Where it leans to the deep blue sky. 



218 EAELY INDIAT^A TRIALS. 

Let otliers pine for the vale below, 

Though a home is more genial there, 
I love the drift of the mountain snow, 

And the health of its bracing air. 
We '11 bound away on the chamois' track, 

Or mark as the noble deer 
Leaps high in air, as our rifles crack ; 

Hurrah ! for our mountain cheer. 
Then sigh who will for a valley home. 

Where the brooks run murmuring by, 
I'll build my cot on the mountain's dome, 

Where it leans to the deep blue sky. 



WASHINGTON'S TOMB. 

BY REV. SYDNEY DYER. 

Immortal and sacred, untouched by decay. 

The tomb of the hero in glory appears ; 
And nations their homage unceasingly pay. 

To his ashes that hallow the place of their tears. 
Though he sleeps in the grave, still, enraptured they greet, 

The banner of stars which his valor unfurled. 
And hither, as pilgrims, they hasten to meet, 

And Washington's tomb is the shrine of the world. 

The deeds of the warrior, the tongue of the sage. 

The strains of the poet, though others may claim. 
The glory that dazzles the world's brightest page. 

Is the halo that circles our Washington's name. 
While a freeman shall live, his devotion will greet 

The banner of stars, which his valor unfurled, 
And hither, as pilgrims, the nations will meet. 

And Washington's tomb be the shrine of the world. 

While others for glory have fought and have bleed. 

His heart and his fame to his country he gave. 
And here, as the feet of the pilgrim are led, 

Each heart is enshrined in our Washington's grave ; 
And the gaze of the freeman with rapture will greet. 

The banner of stars, which his valor unfurled. 
And the hearts of all ages in unison meet. 

At Washington's tomb — the first shrine of the world. 



POETS OF INDIANA. 219 

While sacred, immortal, his resting shall be, 

And nations, admiring, shall covet his fame ; 
May the bonds of our Union be lasting and free, 

And dear as the love of our Washington's name. 
By the tomb of our hero united we'll greet. 

The banner of stars which his valor unfurled ; 
We'll stand by its honor, its foemen defeat. 

And save from pollution the shrine of the world. 



MY DAUGHTER NURSE. 

BY MRS. JULIA L. DUMONT. 

I HEAR her still— that buoyant tread, 

How soft it falls upon my heart ; 
I've counted since she left my bed 

Each pulse that told of time a part. 

Yet in a dreamy calm I've laid, 

Sc^arce broke by fitful pain's strong thrill, 
As one who listening waits some strain, 

Wont every troubled thought to still. 

And o'er me yet in visions sweet, 

The image of my precious child, 
Plying e'en now with busy feet. 

Some tender task — for me has smiled. 

Oh ! youth and health ; rich gifts and high 
Are those wherewith your hours are crown 'd ; 

The balm, the breath, of earth and sky — 
The gladsome sense of sight and sound. 

The conscious rush of life's full tide, 
The dreams of hope in fairy bowers ; 

Action and strength, their glee and pride, 
Are portions of your laughing hours. 

But, still to dim and wasting life, 

Thou bringest dearer gifts than these : 

Grifts, that amid pale suffering strife. 
Love, filial love, beside me wreathes. 



220 EAKLY INDIANA TKIALS. 

Sweet drauglits fresh drawn from love's deep spring, 

Still lulls my many hours of pain, 
And not all summer joys might bring 

A draught so pure from earthly stain. 

Why is it, that thus faint and prone 
I may not raise my languid head? — 

A daughter's arms around me thrown 
Yet lift me from my weary bed. 

And what have flowers or skies the while 

To waken in a mother's breast, 
Soft gladness like the beaming smile, 

With which she lays me back to rest ? 

Those smiles, when all things round me melt 
In slumberous mist, my spirit fill : 

As light upon closed eye-lids felt 

Beneath their curtaining shadow still. 

And still in happy dreams I hear. 

While angels' forms seem o'er me bent, 

Her tones of ever tender cheer, 

With their high whisperings softly blent. 

But hush, that is her own light tread, 

It is her baud upon my brow ; 
And leaning silent o'er my bed, 

Her eyes in mine are smiling now. 

My child, my child, you bring me flowers — 
Spring's fragrant gift to deck my room ; 

But through the dark drear winter hours, 
Love — love alone has poured perfume. 



TWILIGHT. 

BY REV. JAMES GREENE. 

I love the thoughtful hour when sinks 

The burning sun to rest, 
And spreads a sea of flowing gold 

Along the illumined west ; 



POETS OF INDIANA. 221 

When nature seems as if from toil, 

She found a glad release, 
And breathes through all her works the breath 

Of harmony and peace. 

That twilight hour attunes the soul 

To nature's minstrelsy, 
And leaves the temple of the heart 

From passion's discord free ; 
The music of the world without 

Pervades the world within, 
And sweetly drowns the jarring notes 

Of vanity and sin. 

I can not prize in hours like these 

E'en friendship's sacred voice. 
Nor do I need a kindred heart 

To share these mystic joys ; 
For 'tis an hour to be alone — 

Not in the cloister walls, 
But forth mid forest, hill and stream, 

In nature's glorious halls ! 

Yet 'never am I less alone, 

Than when alone' I stray 
Abroad for quiet converse 

With the gentle closing day ; 
The very stillness of the hour 

Is eloquent with thought. 
And every zephyr floating by, 

With speechless language fraught. 

I hold communion with the stream 

That gurgles through the vale, 
And find companions in the flowers 

That scent the passing gale ; 
And when I rest, where spreads the grove, 

Its deep, inviting shade. 
Forgotten thoughts come back in tones 

By trembling leaflets made. 

Those tones unuttered, bring again. 

In pageantry of light. 
The roseate hours when life's gay morn 

Was beautiful and bright ; 



222 EAELY INDIANA TKIALS. 

And words of kindness sweet as if 

By angel voices sped, 
Float from that shadowy laud where rest 

The loved and early dead. 

Nor can I feel alone when all 

Around me speaks of God — 
When arching sky, and flowering earth 

Proclaim his praise abroad ; 
And soft as fall the twilight dews, 

From pearly stores above, 
I hear a voice in every breeze, 

That whispers God is love. 

If in these faintly pencilled lines. 

His glory shines so clear. 
To those who gaze upon his throne 

What vision must appear ? 
What fancy's ardent wing shall soar, 

To gain that viewless hight, 
Or tongue describe, or heart conceive 

That world of fadeless liglit ! 



BURIAL OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 

BY JOHN B. DILLON, ESQ. 

Where shall the dead and the beautiful sleep? 
In the vale where the willow and cypress weep ; 
Where the wind of the West breathes its softest sigh ; 
Where the silvery stream is flowing nigh. 
And the pure, clear drops of its rising sprays 
Glitter like gems in the bright moon's rays — 
Where the sun's warm smile may never dispel 
Night's tears o'er the form we loved so well — 
In the vale where the sparkling waters flow ; 
Where the fairest, earliest violets grow ; 
Where the sky and the earth are softly fair. 
Bury her there — bury her there ! 

Where shall the dead and the beautiful sleep? 
Where wild flowers bloom in the valley deep ; 



POETS or INDIANA. 223 

Where the sweet robes of spring may softly rest 
In purity over the sleeper's breast : 
Where is heard the voice of the sinless dove, 
Breathing notes of deep and undying love ; 
Where no column proud in the sun may glow, 
To mock the heart that is resting below ; 
Where pure hearts are sleeping, forever blest; 
Where wandering Peris love to rest ; 
Where the sky and the earth are softly fair, 
Bury her there — bury her there ! 



LINES TO AN ABSENT WIFE 

BY HENRY W. ELLSWORTH. 

Shall we meet again together, 

As in happy days of old, — 
When around our winter fireside, 

Many merry tales were told ? 
When the yule-log sparkled brightly 

And still brighter every eye. 
As we recked not of the tempest, 

In its wild wrath shouting by ? 

Shall we meet again together, 

On the green and sunny plain, 
With the tall grass round us waving, 

And the billowy ripened grain, — 
Where we scared the timid I'abbit, 

And the speckled prairie hen ; — 
From the morning 'till the twilight. 

Shall we wander there again ? 

Shall we hear once more together. 

The soft ripple of that stream, 
Whose tones were wont to gladden us, 

Like the music of a dream ? 
Where, in forest-paths, we lingered, 

Or with arm-in arm stole on, 
'Till the silver stars had faded, 

And the witchino- moonlight sone? 



224 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Shall we meet again, sweet mother, 

With that dear one by our side. 
Whom our hearts have loved to cherish 

In the fulness of their pride ; 
Whom we oft have watched together, 

In each sunny hour of glee, 
While we blest the glorious Giver 

That such gentle ones could be ? 

Shall we meet again together. 

For the loved and early gone, 
As with noiseless steps we linger 

Near each dear sepulchral stone ; — 
Watching long till evening drawetli 

Her dark pall around their bed, 
And with folded hands above them 

Breathe our blessings on the dead ? 

Shall we meet yet, love, together, 

In that spirit clime on high, 
Where the blest of earth are gathered, 

And the heart's best treasures lie ; — 
Where each deathless soul retaineth 

All it knew or loved of yore ; — 
Shall we — fether, son and mother — 

Meet above to part no more ? 



THE CHOLERA-KING. 

BY HENRY W. ELLSWORTH. 

He Cometh ! A conqueror proud and strong ! 

At the head of a mighty band 
Of the countless dead, as he passed along. 

That he slew with his red right hand ; 
And over the mountains, or down the vale. 

As his shadowy train sweeps on. 
There stealeth a lengthened note of wail, 

For the loved and early gone ! 

He cometh ! The sparkling eye grows dim. 

And heavily draws the breath, 
Of the trembler who whispers low of him, 

And his standard-bearer death, — 



15 



POETS OF IXDIAXA. 225 

He striketh the rich man down from power, 

And wasteth the student pale, 
Nor 'scapes him the maid in her latticed bower. 

Nor the warrior armed in mail ! 

He Cometh ! Through ranks of steel-clad men 

To the heart of the warrior band ; 
Ye may count where his concjuering step hath been 

By the spear in each nerveless hand. 
Wild shouteth he where on the battle plains, 

By the dead are the living hid, 
As he buildeth up from the foemen slain, 

His skeleton pyramid ! 

There stealeth 'neath yonder turret's height, 

A lover, with song and lute. 
Nor knoweth the lips of his lady bright 

Are pale, and her soft voice mute, — 
For he dreameth not, when no star is dim, 

Nor cloud in the summer sky. 
That she who from childhood loved him 

Hath laid her down to die ! 

She watcheth ! A fond young mother dear ! 

While her heart beats high with pride. 
How she best to the good of life may rear. 

The dear one by her side; 
With a fervent prayer, and a love-kiss warm, 

She hath sunk to a dreamy rest. 
Unconscious all of the death-cold form, 

That she claspeth to her breast ! 

Sail Ho ! For the ship that tireless flies, 

While the mad waves leap around. 
As she spreadeth her wings for the native skies. 

Of the wanderers homeward bound, 

Away through the trackless waters blue, 

Yet ere half her course is done. 
From the wasted ranks of her merry crew 

There standeth only one ! 

All hushed is the city's busy throng, 

As it sleeps in the fold of death, 
Like the desert o'er which hatli passed along, 

The pestilent Simoon's breath ; 



226 EARLY india:na trials. 

All liushed ! save tlie cliill and stifling heart 

Of some trembling passer by, 
As he looketh askance on the dead-man's cart, 

Where it waiteth the next to die ! 

The fire hath died from the cottage hearth, — 

The plow on the unturned plain 
Stands still, while unreaped to the mother earth, 

Down droppeth the golden grain ! 
Of the loving and loved that gathered there, 

Each form to the dead hath gone, 
Save the dog that howls to the midnight air, 

By the side of yon cold white stone ! 

He Cometh ! he cometh ! No human power 

From his advent dread can flee, — 
Nor knoweth one human heart the hour. 

When the tyrant his guest shall be ; 
Or whether at flush of the rosy dawn, 

Or at noon-tide's fervent heat, 
Or at night, where with robes of darkness on, 

He treadeth with stealthy feet ! 



BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 227 

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. 

As the passenger on the train from St. Louis to Cincinnati, upon 
the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, crosses the Wabash bridge at 
Vineennes, if he will look out of fiis window, on the left-hand side 
he will see standing there a square, two-story brick house surrounded 
by a porch. That house was the residence of William Henry Harri- 
son, when Governor of the Indiana Territory ; directly in front of the 
house he will see a few old locust and elm trees, in a group. There it 
was in the midst of those trees that General Harrison was seated 
with an open file of men under arms before him many years ago, 
waiting the approach of Teoumseh, the great war chief of the 
Shawnees. Dark and portentous clouds had been gathering over 
the settlements on the Wabash. Tecumseh, the brave but wily 
chief of the Shawnees, and his brother the prophet, had ranged the 
woods and planted the war posts from tribe to tribe, and the rifle 
and tomahawk of Indian warfare were ready for their dreadful 
work upon the frontier settlers. Could it be staid? Could not a 
treaty of peace be made ? Gen. Harrison resolved to try. He asked 
of Tecumseh, through a messenger, a personal interview, privately 
between themselves, to see if they could not avoid the sacrifice of 
human life that must follow war. Tecumseh accepted the proposed 
interview with apparent satisfaction, the time for the meeting was 
fixed, and Vineennes the place agreed upon. General Harrison 
soon after learned that Tecumseh instead of meeting him alone, would 
bring with him a chosen band of warriors, prepared to seize and 
carry off the General a captive, and then fall upon the frontier set- 
tlers with all their savage fury. The General prepared to meet his 
wily foe ; selecting a few brave men, doubly armed, at the appointed 
hour he took his seat, his chair leaning against the large old elm, you 
see in front of the little grove ; his men in open file facing in, with their 
arms in perfect order, at shoulder, ready for the word of command. 
Tecumseh and his warriors came in sight, but seeing that his plot had 
been discovered, and that the General was prepared, leaving his 
warriors behind, he stepped boldly forward, his blanket thrown 
over his shoulders, his breast bare, leggins tied at his knees, moccasins 
on his feet, bare headed, fiice painted, and eagle feathers sticking in 
his hair, his black eye looking vengeance, as he marched with proud, 
defiant step up the open file to the seat of the General. As he approached, 
the General rose and offered his hand. Tecumseh stepped back, stood 
erect, and silently fixed his eyes upon the face of the General, with- 
out moving a muscle. The General, speaking to his interpreter, 



228 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

'• Tell him his great father offers him a chair, to be seated upon." 
The moment the interpreter communicated the message, Tecumseh 
with his eyes still resting on the face of the General, spoke in a 
loud, firm tone of voice : " My father ! the sun is my father, and the 
earth is my mother, and I will recline on her bosom," and sat down 
on the ground directly in front of the General. The General. — " Inter- 
preter, ask him if he will make peace, or if he is bent on war." Tecum- 
seh. — " I am sick." The known meaning of which was that he was dis- 
satisfied. "Will you make peace or will you have war?" This he 
answered by a look that told his meaning. " Tell him if he will 
have war to spare the women and children, let it be a war of men." 
Tecumseh, rising from his seat, stretching out his arm to its full 
length, with his fist clinched. " Your women and children are safe. 
My warriors against your men." He turned and marched proudly down 
the file, joined his warriors and left for his forest home; the tocsin 
of war was sounded and the Indians began to concentrate in their war 
lodges. Tecumseh and the Prophet were every where rallying their 
red brethren and arousing their war spirit. General Harrison was 
not idle, he saw the coming contest not without some alarm for the 
safety of the frontier settlers. He soon raised an army, composed 
of as brave men as ever drew a sword, or fired a rifle — volunteers 
from Kentucky and Indiana, men who understood Indian warfare, 
and were anxious to meet the savage foe. 

About nine ihiles above the city of Lafayette the Tippecanoe 
enters the Wabash river ; the passengers on the trains from Lafayette 
to Chicago, will notice about seven miles from Lafayette, on the left 
hand side of the cars, a beautiful inclosed white-oak grove, widening 
from the point they first pass to the north, on the west side skirted 
by a narrow prairie, on the east by a wide, low prairie, and on the 
north by level woods. The spot is known as the " Tippecanoe Battle 
Ground ; " now the property of Indiana, by donation from the late 
John Tipton. It was on that spot the dreadful battle was fought 
between the American forces, under the command of General Harri- 
son, in person, and the combined Indian warriors, commanded by the 
Shawnee prophet, brother of Tecumseh, who had inspired his warriors 
with the superstitious belief that they would be invincible. 

The American army had encamped early in the evening on that 
elevated open wood. Near the south end, the company of the brave 
Capt. Spencer, the father-in-law of Gen. Tipton, was stationed. Gen. 
Tipton was at that time ensign of the company. Near the upper end 
of the ground was the temporary marquee of Gen. Harrison. I refer 
to the report of the battle for the plan of the encampment, this sketch 



BATTLE OF TIPPECAXOE. 229 

is from recollected private conversations with Gen. Tipton and Gen. 
Harrison. Gen. Harrison rode a beautiful fleet gray mare, that he 
had tied with the saddle on, to a stake near his marquee, to be ready 
at a moment in case of alarm. Major Owen of Kentucky rode a bay 
horse. After the gray mare was hitched, it became necessary in order 
to pass a baggage wagon, to remove her and tie her at another place ; 
without the knowledge of Gen. Harrison, the bay horse of Major 
Owen was afterward tied to the post where the gray mare had been. 
A dark night came on. It was probable that the Prophet would 
strike that night if at all, the men lay upon their arms, the officers at 
their respective commands. Hark ! the sound of rifles. The sentinels 
were either shot or driven in ; the attack was made over the east and 
west banks of the high lands, bordering the prairies. The moment 
the alarm was given, every soldier was upon his feet, and the mounted 
officers in their saddles. Gen. Harrison ran to the post where he left 
his gray mare, finding Maj. Owen's bay horse he mounted, leaving the 
gray for the Major if he could find her. The General dashed down 
to where he heard the firing, rode up to Capt. Spencer's position, at 
the point of the high ground around which the prairies meet ; there 
the enemy had made the first main attack — deadly in efi'ect. There 
stood the brave ensign John Tipton, and a few of the surviving men 
of the company. Gen. Harrison. — "Where is the captain of this 
company?" Ensign Tipton.— "Dead." " Where are the lieutenants?" 
" Dead." " Where is the ensign ? " "I am here." " Stand fast my 
brave fellow, and I will relieve you in a minute." Gen. Tipton told 
me in after j-ears, that a cooler and braver man, on the field of battle, 
than Gen. Harrison, never lived. It was a deadly night, the Indians 
with rifles in their hands, concealed from view, in the darkness of the 
night, fighting to desperation, under the inspiration of their supersti- 
tion, — being the attacking party, and knowing where their enemy lay, 
had great advantages, which nothing but the indomitable courage of 
our brave men could have met and finally repelled. The moment the 
alarm was given, the brave Maj. Owen ran to his stake, but his horse 
was gone ; near by he found and mounted the gray mare of the General. 
He was scarcely in the saddle, before he fell mortally wounded, pierced 
with rifle balls, which were intended no doubt for Gen. Harrison, 
as the Indians knew he rode a gray, and must have been in ambush 
near. The men and officers that fell that dreadful night were the 
bravest of the brave. Their names are not only recorded upon the 
records of our country, but will ever be treasured in the memory of 
every Indianian, with heartfelt gratitude, and undying sorrow. I 
visited the common grave of these brave dead, who fell in that terrible 



230 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

battle, only a few years since. You will find it in a grove of white- 
oak trees perforated by balls, standing near the center of the inclosed 
grounds. The victory was dearly bought, but it secured a lasting 
peace to our frontier. Tecumseh remained our deadly enemy while 
he lived, but soon after fell at the battle of the Thames. This is only 
intended for a charcoal sketch of those memorable scenes. The brave 
Gen. Tipton will be noticed among the United States Senators, before 
these sketches close. 



THE CULBERTSON CASE. 231 

THE CULBERTSON CASE. 

Among the civil trials of the State, there have been perhaps, none 
of greater interest, or involving more important legal principles than 
the case of Samuel Culbertson against Abner T. Ellis, John M. Cook, 
Joseph Bowman, Joshua Beall, Samuel Wise, William Butch, Thomas 
Bishop, and Sylvanus Lathrop, in the Circuit Court of the United 
States, in the year 1850. It was an action upon the case in the nature 
of a conspiracy, brought under the following state of facts. The defen- 
dants were the president, directors, and engineers of the Wabash 
Navigation Company, incorporated to improve the navigation of that 
river, at the rapids below Vincennes, by the construction of a dam. 
and lock, for the passage of steamers. The plaintiff, Culbertson, and 
his brother, citizens of Pennsylvania, made a written contract with 
the corporation, to construct the work in a given time, upon agreed 
terms. The contract contained a provision that whenever the con- 
tractors were not pushing on the work, in good faith, without any 
reasonable excuse, to the satisfaction of the company, the engineer 
should be authorized to xieclare the contract forfeited, which should 
be final between the parties. The contractors had progressed with the 
work for some considerable time. The waters of the river were occa- 
sionally so high as to obstruct the work. The season was sickly, the 
brother had died, and the plaintiff was laid low with fever ; the work 
was not pressed as fast as the company desired, when the engineer 
under the advice of the president and directors, declared the contract 
forfeited, and demanded possession of the works, which Culbertson 
refused to give. The company then procured an affidavit to be made, 
a warrant to issue, and Culbertson, just able to walk, to be arrested, 
and kept in custody until they got possession of the works, materials. 
and tools. 

In the year 1849, Culbertson brought an action of assumpsit on the 
contract, with the common counts, for work, labor, and materials, 
against the Navigation Company in the Circuit Court of the United 
States, Judge Huntington presiding. The case was warmly contested. 
The trial lasted a week. Joseph Gr. Marshall, and Randall Crawford, 
counsel for the plaintiff. Samuel Judah, Jeremiah Sullivan, and 
Abner T. Ellis, for the defendant. The able counsel employed, indi- 
cate the character and ability of the prosecution and defense. The 
main question, the facts being admitted was, for what was the plain- 
tiff entitled to recover. It was admitted by the plaintiff's counsel, that 
if the contract was declared to be forfeited upon sufficient ground by 
the engineer, then they were only entitled to recover the balance 



232 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

due them for work, labor, and materials. But if tlie contract was 
declared to be forfeited on insufficient grounds, tlien tliey could recover 
the reasonable profits of the contract in addition. Judge Huntington 
in his charge, held that the plaintiff could only recover for the work 
done and materials furnished up to the time the contract was declared 
to be forfeited by the engineer, whose decision on that question was 
final between the parties. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff 
for $ 9.985, damages : costs $ 482. The company appealed to the 
Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Judah appeared in that 
court for the conlpany, and I presented a printed argument for Mr. 
Culbertson. The case was affirmed by an equally divided Court. 

In the year 1850, Mr. Culbertson employed me to bring an action 
against the {ndiciduah composing the president and directors of the 
company and the engineer ; in tort, for declaring the contract for- 
feited without just and reasonable cause. It was to me a new ques- 
tion. I was able to find no reported case in the books directly in point; 
but, reasoning from the analogy of cases I canfe to the conclusion that 
the action would lie, and brought the suit. The case was tried at the 
next term, before Judge Huntington on the general issue. Joseph 
L. Jernegan appeared with me for the plaintiff, and Samuel Judah 
and Randall Crawford were for the defendants. Judge Huntington 
presided. The result was a heavy verdict for the plaintiff, which the 
the Court for reasons satisfactory to them, set aside, and granted a new 
trial, costs to abide the final result. 

At the next term, before Judges Mc Lean, and Huntington, the 
defendants obtained leave to file a plea of former recovery, setting out 
the case that had been tried and affirmed in the Supreme Court. 1 
demurred to the plea, and after full argument the Court sustained the 
demurrer, and the cause was continued. At the next term before 
.ludge Huntington, the jury was impanneled, and the trial occupied 
near a week, resulting in a disagreement and a discharge of the jury 
by the Court, after having been out all the night, and the cause was 
again continued. 

At the next term, the case was tried before Judge Leavitt, District 
Judge of Ohio, who presided in the absence from sickness, of Judge 
Huntington. Great preparations were made, on both sides, for the 
final trial, and both came fully prepared. Mr. Jernegan had left the 
State, and Judge Kilgore appeared in his place, with me : the defen- 
dants, to insure success, sent to Kentucky and employed John J. 
Crittenden to assist their able counsel. The case was called, and a 
jury impanneled. Next morning I briefly opened the case to the 
jury, and the evidence was introduced on both sides, occupying two 



THE CULBERTSON CASE. 233 

(lays. After the evidence of the plaiutiff was partly given, Mr. Critten- 
den moved to non-suit the plaintiff, on the ground that a conspiracy 
was charged in the declaration, but no proof to sustain the charge had 
been given. I placed my opposition to the motion upon the grounds 
that it was premature, as all the plaintiff's evidence had not been 
offered, and that proof of conspiracy was not required ; that this was 
not an action for conspiracy, but an action on the case where any one 
of the defendants might be convicted, and the others acquitted. That 
it was not like an indictment for conspiracy at common law, where 
more than one must be convicted, or at least, the one before the court 
with others, where the conspiracy is the gist of the prosecution. 
Judge Leavitt sustained my objections, and overruled the motion ; the 
evidence closed before noon, and the Court adjourned to dinner. 

Judge Kiigore opened to the jury in the afternoon in a speech of 
some two hours, Court adjourned. Next morning, Mr. Crawford 
opened for the defendants, some four hours; Court adjourned for 
dinner. Mr. Crittenden was to speak in the afternoon, public expec- 
tation was on tip-toe, the court-room was crowded before the meeting 
of the court with the elite of the city, it was evident that the great 
Kentucky orator was taxed high in public opinion. Much was 
expected of him. As we v/alked down to the court from the hotel, 
I remarked to Mr. Crittenden, that I had decidedly the advantage of 
him. " Why so," he said. " Because in the first place I have the best 
side of the case, and in the next, I am at home. The people expect noth- 
ing from me, and will not be disappointed, while you are already taxed 
as high as you can be, and may disappoint your audience." He denied 
the first, but admitted the last to be true. He arose, his head whitened 
over by years, his high forehead overspread by his silver locks, his 
projecting mouth, prominent chin, and manly features, reminded me 
of the days when he was combating in the Senate of the United 
States, the mighty men of the land. Like others around me, I was 
about to hear him for the first time in a forensic effort ; I confess I 
had some fears, lest he should cause the jury to forget the evidence, 
and the Court to overlook the law. He spoke some three hours in a 
strain of impassioned eloquence, but I thought he kept too much 
away from the facts of the case. He spoke about and around the case, 
and not at, and upon it. I said to myself, he either thinks the case too 
heavy for him to carry, or too light to carry him. It was evident 
that the facts did not suit him, but he had declaimed beautifully. 
" Let me say to the plaintiff go home to your native State, dismiss 
your suit, betake yourself to some honest employment. You are 
engaged with some of the first men of the State, in a controversy 



234 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

that must end in both disgrace and ruin to you, unless you abandon 
it at once. Let me say to my friend the counsel that is to follow me, 
you have no case, it is the baldest case that was ever brought in a 
court of justice. No action ever was sustained in England or America, 
on facts like these ; an action has already been brought and a recovery 
had against the corporation, and now you are seeking damages against 
the president, directors and engineers, as individuals for the very act for 
which you have already recovered damages. Will you magnify this case 
to the conspiracy of Cataline without proof? " Mr. Crittenden closed 
near four o'clock. He was listened to by the jury and crowded stands 
with profound attention. I rose at once, and closed the argument 
before the jury in a speech over three hours. My friends said I was 
fully myself; the fact was, the case was with me, and was sufficiently 
strong to carry me triumphantly before the jury. Judge Leavitt 
gave to the jury a clear and able charge upon the law of the case, 
which may be found in McLean's reports. The jury retired and 
after a brief absence returned a verdict finding the defendants guilty 
as charged, and assessing damages at S750, costs §610. The moment 
the verdict was announced Mr. Crittenden rose and asked the jurors 
upon what ground they had found their verdict. I objected to 
the question, and told the jurors not to answer : the Court was appealed 
to. Judge Leavitt. — " The question is improper, you can poll the 
jury." Mr. Crittenden. — " I waive the question." Verdict entered, 
motion for new trial. Court adjourned. Next day motion for new 
trial withdrawn and judgment on the verdict. Thus ended this warmly 
contested, important case. 



EUFUS CHOATE. 235 



RUFUS CHOATE. 

Mr. Webster had resigned his seat in the Senate of the United 
States, to take the office of Secretary of State, under Gen. Harrison. 
Rufus Choate of Boston, was elected to the vacant seat. I remember 
well with what curiosity I looked for the apjiearance of Mr. Choate 
in the Senate. I had long known him through the press ; and from 
Mr. Webster and Mr. Bates, as the fii\st lawyer at the Boston bar. It 
is characteristic of Massachusetts, to always have one great man in 
every department, and by a common consent, he can have no success- 
ful rival in his day. Mr. Webster stood in Massachusetts alone, as a 
great statesman ; not exactly as it was said of Mr. Calhoun, in South 
Carolina, that when he took snuff, all South Carolina sneezed. Judge 
Story stood at the head of the judiciary; and Rufus Choate stood at 
the head of the bar, as he does at this day. 

I heard Mr. Choate in the Senate, the first time he addressed the 
body, with much interest ; as I did his after speeches. He was in a 
new field for the display of his powers. He had to meet a body of 
the most distinguished men of the world — the first minds upon earth, 
on the very field of their training and triumphs in the great contest 
of mind with mind. I had heard him but a few minutes, before I 
became satisfied that he had nothing to fear ; that Massachusetts had 
sent to the Senate in the person of Mr. Choate, a worthy successor of 
Mr. Webster, her favorite. Mr. Choate possesses a brilliant imagina- 
tion ; a sound and matured judgment ; a happy elocution ; at times, I 
thought too rapid for efl'ect upon his audience ; words flow from him 
without a seeming effort; his gestures are peculiarly his own; the jerk 
of his arm while speaking would remind you of the whip-arm of a 
coachman touching up the leaders of his team. He was one of the 
most brilliant orators in the Senate ; and was listened to by the body 
with profound attention, sometimes filling the galleries. Mr. Choate 
stood among the first of the National Whigs, a strong and firm friend 
of the Union of the States, now and forever. I give an extract from 
one of his speeches, showing his style, and the cast of his mind. 

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF MR. CHOATE, MAY, 1842. 

" But the honorable Senator is against your jurisdiction in all forms 
and in all stages. Sir, I can not concur with him ; I would assert the 
jurisdiction, on the contrary; on the same grand, general reason, for 
which it was given to you. It was given as a means of enabling you 
to preserve honorable peace, or to secure the next best thing, ' a just 



236 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

war,' a war into wliich we may carry the sympathies, and the praise, 
and the assistance of the world. Accept and exert it for these great 
ends. Do not be deterred from doing so, and from doing so now, by 
what the honorable Senator so many times repeated to you; that 
negotiations are pending with England ; that she has insulted and 
menaced you, and withheld reparation, and Avithheld apology, and that, 
therefore, the passage of the bill at this moment, would he an unmanly 
and unseasonable courtesy or concession to her. How much England 
knows or cares about the passage of this bill ; what new reason it may 
afford to the Foreign Quarterly Review for predicting the approach of 
his monarchial millenium in America ; we need not, I believe no one 
here, need know or care. But does it work unmanly fear of England, 
an unmanly haste to propitiate her good will, because I would commit 
the quiet and the glory of my country to you? Where should the 
peace of the nation repose, but beneath the folds of the nation's flag? 
Do not fear either, that you are about to undervalue the learning, abili- 
ties, and integrity of the State tribunals. Sir, my whole life has been 
a constant experience of their learning, abilities, and integrity ; hut I 
do not conceive that I distrust or disparage them, when I have the honor 
to agree with the Constitution itself, that yours are the hands to hold 
the mighty issues of peace and war. 

" Mr. President, how strikingly all things, and every passing hour, 
illustrate the wisdom of those great men, who looked to the Union ; 
the Union under a general Government, for the preservation of peace 
at home and abroad, between us and the world, among the States, and 
in each State. Turn yoxir eyes eastward and northward, and see how 
this last, but restrained and parental central power, holds at rest a 
thousand spirits, a thousand elements of strife ! There is Maine. 
How long would it be if she were independent, before her hardy and 
gallant children would pour themselves over the disputed territory, 
like the flakes of her own snow-storms ? How long, if New York 
were so, before that tumultuous frontier would blaze with 10,000 
' bale fires ? ' Our own beautiful and beloved Rhode Island herself, 
with which the Senator rebukes you for interfering ; is it not happy 
even for her, that her star instead of shining alone and apart in the 
sky, blends its light with so many kindred rays, whose influence may 
save it from shooting madly from its sphere ? 

" The aspect which our united America turns upon foreign nations — 
the aspect which the Constitution designs she shall turn on them, — the 
guardian of our honor, the guardian of our peace, — is after all, her 
grandest and finest aspect. We have a right to be proud, when we 



RUFUS CHOATE. 237 

look on that happy and free empress-niotlier of States ; themselves free 
uuagitated by the passions, unmoved by the dissensions of any one of 
them, she watches the rights and fame of all ; and reposing, secure 
and serene among the mountain summits of her freedom, she holds in 
one hand the foir olive-branch of peace; and in the other the thvinder- 
bolt and meteor flag of reluctant and rightful war. There may she 
sit forever ; the stars of Union upon her brow, the rock of independ- 
ence beneath her feet." 



238 EAELY INDIAJs^A TKIALS. 

LEWIS F. LINN. 

The State of Missouri was ably represented in the Senate by Thomas 
H. Benton and Lewis F. Linn. Senator Linn being the junior from 
the State, near my own age, and having a great deal of business 
before the Committee on Public Lands, of which I was chairman, we 
became intimately acquainted. The more I saw, heard and knew 
him, the more I became attached to him. In person, he was about 
the medium hight ; strongly made, broad, deep chest, full breast, 
expanded lungs, round head, black hair, beautifully curled over his 
head and around his forehead ; features perfect ; white, beautiful 
teeth ; eyes coal-black. He was a ripe scholar. He always dressed 
tastefully. One morning he came into the Senate with a pair of light 
check pantaloons on. I remarked, " That is a new style." " Why 
don't you know, Mr. Smith, that I am just from England? While 
there, I was in the House of Lords, and was introduced to the Duke 
of Wellington ; he had check pantaloons on ; they looked so comfort- 
able that I raised these." " I thought you would be the last man that 
would pattern after the English dukes." He laughed, and I passed 
on my way. 

As a speaker, he was plain, direct, and intelligent ; imparting to 
his subject a high degree of interest ; he made no pretensions to that 
kind of eloquence that excites the Senate and fills the galleries, still 
he was always listened to with attention by the Senate. The mind of 
Senator Linn was West, and while his own Missouri was never absent 
from him, the still further West, the great slope between the Kocky 
Mountains and the Pacific, was ever present with him ; the Territory 
of Oregon, the country on the Columbia Kiver, the valley of the Wil- 
lamette, were cherished objects of his Senatorial regards. 

It gives me pleasure to present to the reader an extract from one 
of his beautiful speeches, in answer to Mr. M'Dufiie, on his favorite 
Oregon question. This extract gives Senator Linn's style, and will 
be read with interest as his views at that early day. The swelling tide 
of population has since spread over that great slope of our continent, 
including California, without a parallel in the history of our country. 
The infant Oregon then, will soon be one of the States of the Union. 
The unknown Washington Territory then, will, in a few years, add 
another star to our national galaxy. California then belonged to 
Mexico, her golden sands barely known to the explorer, her rich 
quartz a part of her Nevada cliffs, her empire city a village of fisher- 
mens' huts on the sands of the Pacific, her shipping a few Indian 
canoes, and now and then a clumsy junk from the neighboring 



LEWIS F. LINJ^. 239 

Islands. Look at California now ! one of the most flourishing States 
in the Union, soon to rival our Eastern empire States in population 
and wealth. See her great city, San Francisco, with its teeming 
thousands, its astonishing growth, its shipping filling its capacious 
harbor with the commerce of every nation and every clime. 

MR. LINN, OP MISSOURI, IN REPLY TO MR. m'dUPFIE ON THE 
OREGON BILL. 

" These are the views of those who look only to the earthly rewards 
of hazardous enterprise. But the Eastern States furnish others, 
whom a sacred call has led to trace the pathless wilderness, careless 
of all human protection ; who, in the true spirit of Christian philan- 
thropy, have braved every privation and danger to carry to the vallies 
of the Oregon and the Willamette the light of the Gospel, and its 
attendant, civilization ; accomplishing there by their devotedness, 
those noble benefits which it was your part to have performed. The 
Christian spirit of men has outstripped the tardy policy and goodness 
of the Government, and these Gospel-bearers have at once formed a 
paradise, where your statesmen imagine nothing but sterile sands, or 
a surftice blackened by volcanic fires. 

" Of the horrors of such a sojourn, the Senator from South Carolina 
(Mr. M'Duffie), seems to have formed a particularly lively conception, 
and has conveyed it (as was to be expected) in a very powerful form. 
Had he (he said) an honest or deserving son, who desired to immigrate 
thither, he would say to him, ' Don't go ; stay where you are.' But 
had he one fit for a convict-ship or Botany Bay, he would tell him 
without hesitation, ' Go, by all means.' Now, for the Senator's 
information, I beg to read a few well-authenticated descriptions of this 
blasted land of his. The reports of the missionaries, and the narra- 
tives of Capt. Wilkes and of Mr. Peale, the naturalist, give a very 
different picture. They agree that for picturesque beauty, for exube- 
rant fertility, and for salubrity of climate, no region of the earth, of 
equal extent, surpasses the vales and the table-lands of the Oregon. 
There, too, they tell you, instead of the dissoluteness of such a popu- 
lation as the Senator thinks it' only fit for, are seen gentleness, piety, 
intelligence, and peace, which seem to have their chosen seat in the 
beautiful valley of the Willamette. They are law-abiding and law- 
loving ; they are active, yet quiet ; no strifes or broils, suicides or 
murders. No compulsion of the law is needed to make them pay 
their debts — a contrast, on this verge of civilization, as the Senator 
supposes it, at which a portion of his constituents, not to say my own, 



240 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

miglit well blush. He is not less mistaken as to the mercenary 
motives which, he thinks, can alone have led these wanderers so far. 
Was it such that brought our sturdy ancestors to the rock of Ply- 
mouth? May not their descendants speed to this furthest West with 
like visions of some noble futurity to be realized ? There is a fasci- 
nation in these half-real dreams which I have witnessed and felt ; and 
had I wealth to pay, or could such things be bought, I know not 
what I would give to have felt the wild and strange rapture with which 
Boone must have gazed, for the first time, from the summit of the 
Cumberland Mountains over the matchless plain of Kentucky; or, yet, 
again, when he had passed through that Eden-like wilderness, and, 
from the top of one of the mounds of a departed race, look, in bewild- 
ered delight, over the magnificent banks and streams of the Ohio. 
These, sir, are sensations not to be purchased. There is in them no 
touch of any thing mercenary; and they animate men to ventures 
which no gain can repay, but which surely, in finding or founding 
empires for us, deserve encouragement and protection, as much as 
any labors of that more sordid kind which seek and make themselves, 
in safety, rewards at home. There are men who go forth to the wilder- 
ness like our first parents, when Grod sent them forth from the garden 
of Eden to subdue the earth. Such feelings, to our own immediate 
ancestors, shed an ideal beauty over the bai'ren rock of Plymouth ; one 
day, under their all-subduing spirit, to blossom like the rose. The 
same impulse yet animates their race, and will bear them across 
deserts, as of old across the deep, — give them only the protection of 
your laws and the countenance of the Grovernment. I recollect, Mr. 
President, at the last session of Congress, to have heard a venerable 
and respected lady say that, when she removed, at the close of the 
Revolution, from Annapolis to Cumberland, in Maryland, she was 
looked upon as having gone out of the world, and as about to become 
a semi-savage. In such a light were your forefathers (Mr. Bates, of 
Massachusetts, in the chair) viewed when, in their forlorn search for 
freedom, they abandoned the ease of civilized life, and, for freer homes, 
braved the dangers of the deep and the terrors of a savage shore. 
They but obeyed the instinct of our peculiar race — that invincible 
longing for liberty and space which impels those of Anglo-Saxon 
descent to trace the rudest tracts, the wildest seas, range the Atlantic 
and Indian waste of waters, explore the vast Pacific, and break through 
the icy barriers of the Polar oceans. With a spirit renewed from our 
virgin soil, and from Nature itself in this untamed continent, it looks 
back to the land of our forefathers half ready to spread there the 
regeneration which constantly agitates itself Other nations may 



LEWIS F. LINN. 241 

enlarge themselves by physical conquests ; but we (I thank Grod 
for it!) can subdue only by the dominion of mind, the moral empire 
of institutions. If neighboring countries ai'e, at any future time, 
to be added to our Union, it will be they who will have sought the 
blessings of our free institutions ; not we who will have coveted the 
enlargement of our territory by conquering fleets and armies. 

•' Sir, I confess that this wealth of the surface, and the still vaster 
natural treasures that lie beneath, unmined but not unknown, have 
awakened in rae, and seem to me to justify, the expectations which 
the Senator considers so visionary. Over such a region, the passage 
from the richest valley in the world, — that of the Mississippi — to a 
new and wide commercial empire, that must presently start up on the 
Pacific, I can not think railroads and canals mere day-dreams. The 
wonders which have within the last twenty years been achieved in 
these things, may well excuse those who look upon the results I have 
mentioned as possible, even within the compass of the present genera- 
tion. All predictions, even the most sanguine, have in this country 
been so distanced by the actual progress of its prosperity, that gentle- 
men who fortell the other way should beware of the error of the Mil- 
lerites, and not lay the accomplishment of their prophecies too close 
at hand. Even in the fiith of the bold enthusiasts who landed at 
Plymouth Rock, was there one ardent enough to imagine that their 
descendants would, in five centuries, perform what has been effected 
in two ? It was said by G-en. Cass, in his discourse before the Histo- 
rical Society of this city, ' That he had conversed with those who had 
talked with the children of the pilgrims.' In that small space of time, 
what amazing changes ! What an empire has risen up, like an exha- 
lation from the earth ! A new people has been added to the great house- 
hold of nations, and is already among the first in the world. There 
are those among us who have talked with Daniel Boone, that overland 
Columbus who first explored the recesses of that immense wilderness in 
which we now count many States, teeming with popiilation and wealth, 
and glad with all the gifts of civilization. What imagination has 
yet outstripped the gigantic pace at which improvement marches 
among us? Sir, I can well conceive the tumult of delight which 
must have swelled the bosom of Clarke, when from the blufi" he had 
gained, he first heard the roar of the great ocean, and saw the surges 
of the Pacific bathing the territory he had explored. In the vision 
of that moment, he saw through the dim vista of the future, rising 
States of his country, men spreading along that shore, and the white 
sails of their commerce wafting along the bosom of that peaceful sea 
the barbaric wealth of the East, in return for the more solid fruits of 
16 



242 EAELY INDIA?J^A TRIALS. 

our own industry. One can not read the warm and striking descrip- 
tion of what he saw and felt, without sharing in his enthusiasm. 
Some of us now here have shaken hands with Boone, with Clarke, 
and with Cass, who have often conversed with a relative, a cotempo- 
rary, of the first-born of the Pilgrim Fathers. What a picture does 
this present for the contemplation of the statesman and philosopher ! 
The chain is complete from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans— from 
the first-born of Massachusetts to Clarke on the borders of the western 
ocean. 



ROBERT J. WALKER. 243 



ROBERT J. WALKER. 

There are few men, now living who have filled a larger space in 
the public eye, than Robert J. Walker, at this time Governor of 
Kansas. I found Mr. Walker at the head of the Land Committee in the 
Senate of the United States, when I entered that body in 1837, and 
became passingly acquainted with him. In 1841 I was selected as 
the chairman of that committee, and elected by the party vote over 
Mr. Walker, who remained a member of the committee, during the 
balance of my term ; we consequently became intimate. In person 
Mr. Walker was the lightest man in the Senate. Some five feet six 
inches high, rather stooping as he walked, small bones, little flesh, 
narrow chest, large head for the size of his body, bald to behind the 
crown, high, retreating forehead, large nose, wide mouth, pi-ojecting 
chin. Weight some hundred pounds before he visited Cuba for his 
health, rather heavier after his return. Still I never saw him^ that 
his health did not appear to be very delicate. So much so, that it 
was a matter of surprise with me that he could perform the immense 
labors that were thrown upon him, as Secretary of the Treasury, and 
in his other public professional positions. Mr. Walker was a good 
speaker, his voice rather shrill to be pleasant. He was argumentative 
and very formidable in debate. To say that he stood among the first 
of his party, would be doing him only justice, and I am incapable 
of doing him less. Mr. Walker spoke perhaps as often on important 
subjects as any other Senator, indeed he scarcely ever let a question 
escape from the Senate without hearing from him. I see Mr. Benton 
in his " Thirty Years," speaking of the Bankrupt Law states truly : 
•' This measure, then, which had no place in the President's Message, 
or in Mr. Clay's schedule, and to which he was averse, took precedence 
on the calendar of the vital measures for which the extra session was 
called." So far I agree with Col. Benton, but when he puts Mr. 
Henderson in advance of Mr. Walker in support of that measure, 
I totally disagree with him. I was there, I saw every movement, and I 
heard every argument. The truth is and let it go to posterity as the 
truth, of that part of history, the Bankrupt bill never could have 
passed the Senate but for the great exertions of Robert J. Walker, 
and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, the Representatives of Mississippi and 
New York. Mr. Walker was more than himself upon that l)ill. He 
met every argument against it with all his power, and when he touched 
the poor debtor, and his family, in the hands of the inexorable creditor, 
he moistened many eyes. The bill was on its passage. Mr. Buchanan 
had closed a powerful speech against it that seemed almost to seal its 



244 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

fate. I turned my eye to Mr. AValker, lie rose, addressed the Chair 
in a low tone of voice, and turning to 3Ir. Buchanan who sat near me, 
as the Congressional Globe of the 25th of July, 1841, in giving a 
mere epitome of his speech, says : 

'• Mr. Walker replied to Mr. Buchanan's arguments contending for 
the principles of the bill and its details. He pointed to the Bank- 
rupt law of Pennsylvania, the great complaint against which was 
that it was compulsory and partial in its bearing ; and that was 
why it had been repealed. He denied that the passage of this bill 
could have a tendency to expand credit ; but, on the contrary, would 
have a reverse action. He thanked the Senator for the sympathy he 
had expressed for unfortunate debtors ; but he w^ould rather have his 
vote than his sympathy ; and he should have respected that sympathy 
much more if the Senator had not iiiade the powerful speech he did 
against the bill. If this law was not passed the thousands of unfortunate 
debtors in this country would either have to wear the chains of the 
slave, or become exiles from their native land. The argument that 
the law could not be executed, was an argument against the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. There was no difficulty whatever in the 
execution of the law, all the details were left to commissioners, as to 
the testimony of witnesses at a distance, depositions could be taken. 
As to the law of 1800, on the repeal of which so much stress was 
laid, the principal cause of objection against it was that it was a com- 
pulsory law. As to the Philadelphia law of 1812, it conferred a privilege 
on the citizens of Philadelphia, in the discharge of their obligations, 
which was denied to the citizens of the interior of the State, and this 
privilege was considered so odious as to lead to the repeal of the law. 
Instead of being a stimulus to excessive speculation he contended 
that its operation would be jirecisely the reverse. In stating the 
unequal operation of State laws, which released debtoi's in some States, 
while they who were equally honest, and equally unfortunate, re- 
mained bound in others, the strongest argument was adduced in favor 
of the passage of a General Bankrupt Law uniform in its operation. 
No man could doubt that Congress has the power to grant the relief 
so loudly called for, and the States had not the power." 

He closed, the bill passed by a very close vote. Mr. Walker as 
Governor of Kansas will have need of all his judgment, discretion 
and firmness. As his personal friend, I tremble for him, so many 
have so signally failed, but I hope and trust that he may discharge his 
duty faithfully to his own credit, and the best interest of the people 
he governs. 



JOHN. C. CALHOUN. 245 

JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

Among tlie eminent men of the United States, John C. Calhoun, 
the great Cotton commoner of the South, will ever stand high and 
distinguished. I had the pleasure of an acquaintance with him in the 
Senate of the United States, during the time I served in that body. 
Had Mr. Calhoun lived north of the Cotton States, his great mind 
would unquestionably have been more national than it was. I have 
read the most of his speeches. I have heard every speech he made in 
the Senate, openly before the world, and in executive session, including 
that on the Ashburton treaty, placing our line upon the 49th parallel 
of latitude. I could distinctly see that the great cotton interest was 
the main idea in them all. Was the question Internal Improvements 
by the General Government, States Rights, Tariff, Protection, Revenue, 
Commerce, Manufactures, Navy, Finances, Public lands. Assumption 
of State Debts, Banks, Annexation, Peace, War, the election of Presi- 
dent, triumph of Party, consistency df himself, — Cotton^ Cotton^ the 
interest of the Planter, prompted to action, and controlled the mind 
of Mr. Calhoun. Negro Slavery, with him, was secondary, merely 
instrumental in the success of his darling cotton interest. The strug- 
gle only tei'minated with his life, between his patriotism and his 
beloved cotton interest, as was evident to his friends and ardent admi- 
rers, as his Presidential aspirations received check after check, blow 
after blow, from the great parties to which he connected himself His 
great mind became less and less attached to the Union, and more and 
more prepared for a separate Cotton confederacy, to be composed exclu- 
sively of States holding slaves, which Mr. Calhoun always maintained 
as essential to eminent success of the cotton planter. No leading poli- 
tician in the nation ever changed position with less compunction than 
Mr. Calhoun. Still he was remarkably sensitive on that point, and 
would labor for days to prove the consistency of his political life. 
I recollect on one occasion in the Senate, after he had separated from 
Mr. Clay, a reference to his Fort Hill letter, brought on an interesting 
personal contest between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Clay. Mr. Webster 
ultimately took part, in M'hich Mr. Calhoun maintained to his own 
satisfaction, the consistency of his whole life, against fearful odds of 
facts ; indeed, in the face of facts brought against him by those able 
Senators, that seemed to me incontrovertible at the time. While pre- 
paring this sketch, I accidentally met one from the pen of a writer 
unknown to me, from which I make some extracts agreeing substan- 
tially with my own recollection of the scenes as I witnessed them from 
my seat near Mr. Clay at the time. 



1l46 eakly Indiana trials. 

The struggle between the two cliamjHons was no holiday pastime. 
The blows exchanged were such as only giants could give, and such 
as only giants could withstand. The contest was like that described 
by Milton between the superhuman spirits, who picked up hills for 
missiles, but found even such weapons unavailing. Mr. Clay led off 
in a speech that we thought must inevitably crush Mr. Calhoun. He 
spoke of the contest which for years Mr. Calhoun and himself had, 
side by side, been waging against the " usurpations " of that " extra- 
ordinary man," den. Jackson. He told how the "boding fancies" 
of " my quondam friend " could in the various stages of that struggle 
see nothing but gloom in the future — nothing but tremendous and 
fast-coming disaster to the country. The blows which he struck were, 
in consequence, given with the energy of despair, rather than the ani- 
mation of hope. He, Mr. Clay, had preferi-ed to look upon the brighter 
side of things. He had even sought in their many interviews and 
consultations, to administer comfort to his gallant comrade in arms; 
but, like Rachel of old, he refused to be comforted. — Kind fortunes, 
however, had smiled upon their good cause. The battle was bravely 
fougiit. The victory was already won, and was in their grasp. The 
patriotic heart was beating high ; rejoicings began to swell up all over 
the land. The consummation long labored for had been almost reached. 
Executive usurpation was under the frown of an indignant people, 
and the country was almost safe. 

Where now was his gallant friend from South Carolina? Where 
was he in this moment of triumph, when a few more brave efforts 
would have finished the work in which for years he had been toiling? 
Was he exchanging congratulations with his comrades? Was he 
cheering on his followers ? Alas ! no. Instead of the proud battle-cry 
which he was wont to utter, suddenly he sounded a retreat ? In that 
auspicious, long-prayed-for, that critical moment, he called to his 
legions, and bade them retreat from the field ? Aye, more ; he bade 
them follow him to the enemy ! 

He, Mr. Clay, heard the news with deep alarm. He well knew the 
commanding and the deserved influence of the gentleman. — He knew 
the multitudes that followed him as faithfully as ever clan followed 
chieftain, and he trembled lest the weakened ranks of the Whig army 
should no longer be able to cope with the disciplined and strengthened 
forces of the administration. He had waited, therefore, with much 
anxiety to see the extent of the defection. The rolling of the retreat- 
drum finally ceased ; the dust raised by the retiring squadrons cleared 
away — the company led off by the gentleman from South Carolina 
became visible. "He himself, sir, constituted horse, foot and dra- 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 247 

goons ! In the language of liis late principal opponent, but now his 
most distinguished ally (Col. Benton), " he went over sol-i-ta-r)j and 
A-LONE." He went over, sir, and left to posteritjr to discover his 
motives. 

While Mr. Clay was speaking, Mr. Calhoun was generally in motion 
— walking much of the time in the lobby, in the rear of the presiding 
officer's chair. He listened attentively, but did not interrupt the 
speaker. When Mr. Clay concluded the Senate adjourned. 

Two weeks afterward Mr. Calhoun replied. He had studiedly 
arranged his argument, and his pathway was a stream of light. He 
reviewed his political career ; showed how the charges of inconsistency 
brought against him by weak minds grew, in fact, out of his very 
consistency, a consistency which would abandon party before principle. 
He said he had always been ready to co-operate with those who would 
act with him, in achieving a public good ; that such an object was 
the only bond of party union which he recognized ; that with this 
view he had co-operated with the Whigs, with the majority of whom 
he disagreed on important political questions, for the purpose of break- 
ing down the dangerous usurpations of executive power. That object 
was now accomplished, and the alliance ended with its purpose. 
Further co-operation with the Whigs would, by placing them in power, 
install principles to which he had ever been opposed ; for the State 
Rights portion of the Whigs, being the weaker wing, could not expect 
the advantages of victory to inure to the benefit of their principles. 
This was what he meant by that remark in which the Senator, prompted 
from within, sees a longing after the vile spoils of office, instead of a 
laudable patriotic sentiment. 

Mr. Calhoun, while speaking, maintained a stern attitude, and 
stood in the aisle by the side of his desk. His gesture was short 
and nervous, and chiefly with the right hand. His articulation was 
rapid, but not so much so as to be at all indistinct, as we had been 
led to expect. His pronunciation of some words was faulty ; "^>orrt?, " 
for example, he pronounced "pint.'' His keen eye was unwaveringly 
fastened upon Mr. Clay, who sat upon the opposite side of the chamber, 
and to him rather than to the Speaker of the Senate he addressed all 
his remarks. 

When Mr. Calhoun concluded, Mr. Clay immediately rejoined. He 
rose under an excitement, such as he at one time had manifested in his 
first speech, like a stalwart warrior not weakened or dismayed, but 
goaded and smarting from wounds which he was not permitted to avenge. 
He commenced by saying that when he was assailed — when his career 
was called under review — it did not take him two or three weeks, of 



248 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

loj}>' searches and midniglit toil, to prepare his defense. He stood 
ever ready, arrayed as he was in the panoply of conscious integrity, 
to vindicate his fair fame against all assaults from whatever quarter. 
He continued in a speech, the conclusion of which we were not 
priviledged to hear, but which gave great satisfaction to his ad- 
mirers. 

But the end was not yet, asd^he distinguished Senators seemed to 
retire from the contest, each apparently satisfied with the result, there 
arose from the seat before me, Daniel Webster; and in his powerful 
voice, addressing the chair, — his black, piercing eyes fixed upon Mr. 
Calhoun : — " Where am I ? Is this the Senate of the United States ? 
Am I Daniel Webster ? Is that (pointing to Mr. Calhoun), John C. 
Calhoun of South Carolina, the same gentleman that figured so largely 
in the House of Representatives in 1816. at the time the Bill creating 
a National Bank passed that body ? What have I heard to-day ? The 
Senator attempting to maintain his consistency before this Senate in 
my presence ? Does the Senator remember, that when Rufus King 
moved his amendment to the Bank Bill, providing the bonus that was 
to be appropriated to works of internal improvement within the States 
should not be so appropriated without the consent 'of the States, the 
Senator from South Carolina then took the floor against the amendment 
of Mr. King, and made one of his strong and conclusive speeches, 
maintaining that the federal arm could not be stricken down, or paral- 
yzed by the States ; and that the powers of the General Government 
were ample to construct works of national importance. Where were 
the State Rights doctrines of the gentleman then?" and took his seat. 
Mr. Calhoun rose instantly. " I recollect the facts stated by the Sen- 
ator from Massachusetts well, and let them warn all young Senators 
never to violate the Constitution." He took his seat, other matters soon 
occupied the Senate, and we moved on as usual. 

At another time, Mr. Calhoun was struggling with all his powers of 
mind, to maintain his consistency on the question of a home valuation 
of ad valorem duties, with James F. Simmons, of Rhode .Island, one 
of the strong men of the body, and whom I am highly pleased to see 
is returned to the Senate for another term from his State. 

Mr. Simmons was speaking, 3Ir. Calhoun sitting near him. " I am at a 
loss to account for the reason why it is insisted that such a rule of valua- 
tion is impracticable, or why it will not insure the certainty of collection 
as well as to have specific duties. So far as it is important that any 
duty should bear a due proportion to the value of the article taxed, 
it is far better than specific duties, and if there be a real desire to carry- 
out the Compromise Act on the part of the Senator from South Care- 



JOHN C. CALHOUN. 249 

lina, I can not account for liis opposing tliis provision of that bill. 
He knows that the bill itself could not have passed without it ; but 
upon an incidental debate. Upon the appointment of a clerk the 
other day, he insisted that this part of the law was unconstitutional. 
It appears to me to be a singular objection for him to make, against 
carrying into effect a provision of the act which he voted for himself and 
one too, without which the Compromise Act itself would not have passed. 

Mr. Calhoun, interrupting Mr. Simmons, '' the Senator from Rhode 
Island is mistaken as to my voting for that amendment." " I can not 
be mistaken, he voted for it, and at the time, stated how it should be 
carried into eifect." "I hope the Senator does not intend to misrepre- 
sent me, I voted against the amendment, but for the bill." " And I 
am quite certain that the Senator voted for the amendment." — " If the 
Senator persists in his statement, I must appeal to the Journals." 
Mr. Calhoun got the Journal, turned to the amendment, and stood 
quietly looking at the names. Mr. Simmons. — " Will the Senator read 
or hand me the book? " Mr. Calhoun handed over the journal with- 
out a word. Mr. Simmons. — " those who voted in the affirmative were 
Messrs. Clay, Ccdhoim; was that the Senator? so he sees he was mista- 
ken." Calhoun. — •" I made a speech at the time, explaining my vote." 
And so the matter ended. 

Mr. Calhoun in person was not less than sis feet, as straight 
as a gun-barrel, head erect, hair turned back, countenance stern, 
austere. I never saw him smile. As a speaker he was the model 
of himself, unlike all others ; his style was terse, sentences short and 
pointed, mind eminently eoncentrative, he stated his positions with 
great clearness, and marched directly at them in the argument. He 
made no pretensions whatever to eloquence, if imagination he had, 
it was only to create the facts upon which he commented ; wholly 
unlike Mr. Benton, he had little to do with documents, he spoke from 
his own authority, scorned to lean upon others ; had he sworn by any 
man on earth, it would have been by himself Mr. Calhoun was easily 
flattered. He had made his gi'eat speech in favor of the Ashburton 
treaty, in executive session of about an hour. He seldom spoke more 
than an hour ; never more than two hours, on any subject. I met 
him as he closed, and congratulated him on the ability of his speech; 
from that time forward, he treated me with unusual kindness. I ^ive 
an extract from one of his great speeches to show the reader both his 
style and the truth of my statement that his whole mind was upon 
the cotton interest of the South. 

" But I am not ignorant that we must rely for holding the cotton 
market on our superior skill, industry and capacity for producing the 



250 EARLY INDIA^^A TRIALS. 

article. Nearly if not altogether, one-balf of the ?olid contents of 
the globe is capable of producing cotton, and that too in the portion 
the most populous and where labor is the cheapest. We may have 
rivals every where in a belt of 70 degrees at least, lying on each side 
of the equator and extending around the globe. Not only the far 
East, but all Western Asia, quite to the 35th or even the 40th degree 
of latitude, a large portion of Europe, almost all Africa, and a large 
portion of this continent, may be said to be a cotton-producing region. 
When the price of cotton rises high, a large portion of that immense 
region becomes our competitor in its production, which invariably 
results in a great fall . of prjce. Then a struggle follows for the 
market. In that struggle, we have ever heretofore succeeded, and 
I have no fear, with fair play on the pari of our own Government, we 
will continue to be successful* against the world. We have the ele- 
ments of success within us. A ftivorable soil and climate, a plenty 
of cheap land, held in fee simple, without rent, tithe, or poor rates. 
But, above all, we have a cheap and efficient body of laborers, the best 
fed, clothed, trained and provided for, of any in the whole cotton 
growing region, for whose labor we have paid in advance. I say paid 
in advance, for our property in our slaves is hut wages purchased in 
advance^ including the support and supplies of the lahorers, which is 
usually very liberal. With these advantages we may bid defiance to 
Hindoo and Egyptian labor, at its two or three cents a day. Ours 
being already paid for, is, as far as the question of competition is 
concerned, still cheaper, to say nothing of its superior efficiency, its 
better and more skillful direction under the immediate eye of intelli- 
gent proprietors, of cheap, unincumbered laud, favorable soil and 
climate, and greater facility and cheapness of transportation to the 
great markets of the world. But this is not all. We have another 
and great advantage. There is not a people on earth who can so well 
bear the curtailing of profit as the Southern planters, when out of 
debt. A plantation is a little community of itself, which, when hard 
pressed, can furnish within itself almost all of its supplies. Ours is a 
fine provision country, and, when needs be, can furnish most of its 
supplies of food and clothing from its own resources. In prosperous 
times, when the price of our staples is high, our labor is almost 
exclusively directed to their production, and then we freely and 
liberally part with their proceeds in exchange for horses, mules, cattle, 
hogs and provisions of all description from the West, and clothing 
and all the products of the arts with the North and East ; but when 
prices fall and pressure comes, we gradually retire on our own means, 
and draw our own supplies from within. 



COPIES OF LETTERS. 251 



COPIES OF LETTERS. 

It is not my purpose to publish many of the letters I have received 
from distinguished men in the course of an extensive correspondence, 
but I have thought a few of them might be sufficiently interesting to 
the general reader to find a place here. 

LETTER FROM HENRY CLAY. 

"Ashland, I4th September, 1839. 
"Mt Dear Sir: 

" I am desirous to obtain as accurate information as may be practica- 
ble in respect to the probable course of your State, in the approaching 
Presidential contest, and I know of no one who will be more likely to 
communicate it than yourself. I therefore take the liberty of applying 
directly to you, and if j'ou will indulge me, I will state the points on 
which I should be glad to be informed, in the shape of the following 
interrogation. 

" Was the result of your late elections owing to the use of my name 
in connexion with the Presidential office? 

" Is it likely that it would have been otherwise, if my name had not 
been before the people as a candidate. In the event of a contest 
between Mr. Van Buren and me, for which will the vote of your State 
be probably cast. Is there any other name, and if so whose, that would 
more probably obtain the suffrage of your State than mine ? 

" Is there any reason to believe that the issue of your late election 
was influenced in any degree by the use of public money? 

" Will your State be represented in the N. Convention which is to 
meet at Harrisburgh in December next? 

" The information which I seek is intended as well to guide my own 
course, as to enable me to form some reasonable conjecture, in respect 
to the final issue of the existing contest. I request therefore that you 
will communicate with me in the utmost frankness and sincerity. I 
can hear accounts unfavorable to myself, with as much composure, if 
not with as much pleasure, as those of an opposite character. I do 
not wish to limit you to a strict and formal response to the above inter- 
rogations. Whatever form you may choose to give to the information 
with which you may favor me, will be acceptable, and thankfully 
received ; and if you should think proper to add any which is not 
called for by this letter, you will increase my obligations to you. 
" With great respect, I am your friend and obt. serv't. 

H. CLAY." 
The Hon. Oliver H. Smith. 



252 EAELY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

ANSWER. 

"Indianapolis, Ind. September 28th, 1839. 
" Hon. Henrt Clay : 

" My Dear Sir. — Your letter of tlie 14tK inst. wliich had arrived 
during my temporary absence, was received by me last evening, and 
I lose no time in answering its contents. I need scarcely premise 
that I shall with the utmost candor, and without concealment, give 
you my opinion on the subject of your communication. I am aware 
that you would be as incapable of asking, as I would of giving any 
other response. Still I am not unapprized of the delicacy of the task 
you impose upon me. Having long cherished for you the most friendly 
feelings, private and political, I have looked with an anxious eye, 
to the result of the late elections in this and other States, for the pur- 
pose of drawing conclusions from them, indicative of public opinion, 
relative to the approaching Presidential canvass, and the probable rela- 
tive strength of the prominent Whig candidates, whose names will 
likely be presented to the National Convention. The late elections 
in this State are little understood abroad, they did not turn mainly 
upon general politics. Our system of internal improvements, and the 
consequent high taxes, with which the Whig cause is unfortunately 
identified to a great extent, although both parties have been instru- 
mental in bringing the system upon us, has had a controlling influence 
and it may continue for years. The name of neither of the candidates 
for the Presidency had much to do with the matter, either for or against 
the Whig cause, still, caudor compels me to say, that I greatly fear 
that your name would not be sufiiciently potent to stem the current 
that has set, and is still running against us. No name under heaven 
would bo so well calculated as yours, to stimulate your original sup- 
porters of our party to a desperate contest. But on that class who 
joined us under the Harrison flag we can not rely, should you be 
the candidate. They have not forgotten the old contest when their 
idol Gen. Jackson and yourself were in the field. They still retain a 
deep-rooted prejudice against you, repeating the oft-refuted charge 
of bargain, intrigue and management, between j'ou and Mr. Adams, 
and they are beyond the reach of reason or arguments. J n a contest 
between you and Mr. Van Buren in this State, it will require despe- 
rate exertions to insure our success. The party opposed to us seem 
to be united and moved by one common impulse, while their watch- 
word is Democracy, understood by few, but powerful with the masses, 
and however little the party is entitled to its name, it has it, and we 
have to meet the false issue made for us, with the additional and equally 
false cry of federalism ringing in our ears. 



COPIES OF LETTERS. 253 

<< You ask me whether there is any other name that woukl be more 
likely than yours to obtain the suifrage of this State against Mr. Van 
Buren. I must answer this question in the affirmative. I have no 
doubt but that General Harrison could get a majority of this State 
against Mr. Van Buren. We contemplate sending delegates to the 
Harrisburgh Convention in December next. 1 have been named as a 
delegate, but have declined, thinking it impolitic to do so ; besides, 
the Senate will be in session, and I have not thought it proper to leave 
my seat while the body is in session, when I could avoid it. Having 
briefly answered your interrogations, I might here close my remarks, 
and would most certainly do so, were it not for the indulgent request 
in the latter part of your letter, and the fact that I know you will fully 
appreciate the motives that prompt the few additional thoughts which 
I submit for your consideration. Your friends in this State, with 
whom I have conversed, and no man ever had more ardent ones, are 
looking with painful anxiety to the determination of the Whig National 
Convention, in the selection of the candidate. If they thought your 
success probable, they would not hesitate in warmly soliciting your 
name to be placed before them as their candidate ; but, they can not 
bear the idea of seeing you placed in a doubtful and desperate con- 
test at this time. Still if it must be so, they will do all in their power 
for you, though their own political fate may be involved in the ques- 
tion. The opinion of your friends, here, so far as I have been able 
to learn it, is that you and the party have much to gain and nothing 
to lose by your indicating in such terms as your own good sense may 
suggest, your willingness or desire that Gen. Harrison may be the 
nominee of the Convention, he standing pledged to a single term, and 
by your cordial support of the General, manifested in such manner as 
not to cool your friends, but increase their ardor, you could do more 
to identify yourself with his friends in another contest at the expira- 
tion of the term, than all the electioneering your friends could do for 
you; while your old supporters would rally again to the standard of 
their first choice, now and hereafter. We have seen the result of the 
late Pennsylvania Whig Convention, but the sentiments above expressed 
were held by us before that convention was held, and are not promp- 
ted by it. If I have been more frank than the occasion required, I 
hope you will attribute it to an honest conviction of duty imposed 
upon me by your letter, connected with the portentou.s approaching 
crisis, and not to any abatement on my part, of the private and politi- 
cal friendship I have ever entertained for you. 

" With great respect, your friend and Obt. Servt. 

0. H. SMITH." 



254 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

REPLY OP HENRY CLAY. 

" AsHLAXP, October 5th., 1839. 
" Dear Sir. 

*• I duly received your favor of the 28tli. ult., and cordially thank 
you for its interesting contents. The views Avhieh it presents will 
receive from me attention and deliberate consideration. 

"It has been the misfortune of the Whig party, that it has so long 
delayed the designation of its candidate for the Presidency : that has 
been my opinion. The danger, increased greatly by indiscretion, now 
is, that when it makes a nomination, no matter of whom, some of the 
friends of the persons not nominated will not go for the candidate 
designated. This is declared to be the case with some of the friends 
of Gen. Harrison, without their seeming to anticipate, that it may be 
also the case with some of the friends of other persons who have been 
spoken of. Another consequence of delay, is that our party has 
been broken oiFinto fragments, for if its leaders will not act, the mem- 
bers of the party will act for themselves ; when the officers will not 
steer the ship, the crew will assume the command ; accordingly we 
perceive, that not content with one General in the field, our friends 
have brought out another, and I assure you from all the information 
which I have, lam inclined to think that the last is the stronger of the two. 

" I hope these unfortunate divisions will be reconciled, and that we 
shall unite heart and hand in supporting the person nominated by 
the Convention, whoever he may be ; that body bringing, as its members 
will do, information from all quarters of the Union, must be much 
better qualified, than any individuals, however patriotic and enlightened 
they may be, to make a judicious selection. As for myself, I have no 
wish to be the candidate, if there be any other Whig more acceptable 
to the greater number than myself, nor without a high degree of 
probability of success. It is proper to add, that the rumors which 
have been circulated of my intention to withdraw are unfounded. ^ 
have reserved to myself the decision of the question, whether I will 
consent to the use of my name as a candidate. I mean to avail myself 
of the lights I can in guiding my judgment, and when I have formed 
a determination it will at the proper time, and in some authentic form 
be publicly announced. I repeat the expression of my thanks for 
your frank and friendly communication : and remain faithfully 
" Your Friend and obedient servant, 

11. CLAY." 



COPIES OF LETTEKS. 255 

LETTER PROM MR. CLAY. 

"Ashland, September 7, 1840. 
" My Dear Sir : 

" Along with an invitation from the committee to attend the celebra- 
tion of the Battle of the Thames on the 5th October, I received your 
favor of the 2d inst., uniting in requesting my attendance. I should 
be most happy to comply with wishes thus kindly expressed, but it is 
really and unaffectedly out of my power ; no old plough or coal-horse 
ever wanted rest more than I do ; and my private affairs, and my pro- 
fessional engagements are all needing my attention, for they have all 
suffered by my long absence. I have also contingently contracted an 
engagement to attend a celebration at the late residence of Glen. Shelby 
on the anniversary of the Battle of the Thames. I must therefore 
pray you to aid me in rendering acceptable the considerations which 
deprive me of the pleasure of visiting Indianapolis this Fall. 
With great regard, I am respectfully yours, 

H. CLAY." 
The Hon. 0. H. Smith. 

Mr. Clay, accompanied by Mr. Crittenden, Grov. Metcalf, Gov. 
Letcher and Mr. Harden, at a subsequent time, visited Indianapolis, 
and was met every where by the enthusiastic thousands of the people ; 
indeed his route through the State was a perpetual ovation, all seemed 
to forget party, to do honor to the great man of the nation. Mr. Crit- 
tenden was my guest, and Mr. Clay was frequently with us during his 
short stay at the Capital. 

LETTER FROM GOV. JOHN DAVIS. 

"Worcester, Mass., October 20, 1842. 
" My Dear Sir : 

" I have received your welcome favor of the 10th, which was exceed- 
ingly acceptable, as I had long had it in my mind to write you, and 
invite a correspondence. I thought I saw a gleam of the rays of 1840 
in the west, and my letters from Ohio, assured me in the most undoubt- 
ing confidence of the success of the Whigs. Judge then of the mor- 
tifying disappointment which followed the confidence inspired by our 
friends. I assure you that so far as my name was concerned in the 
matter, it has no share in exciting these feelings, for no expectation 
had been raised, or desires created, that could in the smallest degree 
influence my sentiments. But I looked upon a successful move in 
Ohio as the augury, shadowing forth the future policy of the country ; 
as in some measure settling the question, whether Tyler was to suc- 
ceed in breaking up the Whig party, and carrying us back to subtreas- 



256 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

ury and all the disasters of loco-policy or not. I tliouglit the election 
vras to turn upon the question whether we should cherish the cotton 
policy, or go for the labor of the free States. I thought if Ohio came 
in well, the policy which you have labored with great ability to sustain 
in Congress, would gain strength and permanence. How gloomy and 
unfortunate is the opposite of all this. But so it seems to be, and our 
friend Clay must feel deeply the result. It forebodes any thing but 
prosperity to the country ; but if the people will have it so, all I can 
say is, that in my opinion they do not understand their true interests. 
" Our election comes in a very short time, and if Ohio had encouraged 
us, we should have stood well, but as things are, what with this defeat 
and Mr. Webster's speech throwing cold water upon all our exertions, 
I can not say that a favorable result is by any means certain ; we are 
pretty nearly balanced. The election of 1840, is not by any means a 
fair test, as such a number can only be got out by such excitement ; 
and the stay-at-home voters are generally Whigs. We shall do what 
we can, and are pretty well drilled in contending against majorities. 
You may hope for the best ; but our people have been so discouraged 
by events, that they feel as if they could see nothing to rely upon. 
The tariff is gradually inspiring confidence, and business will soon 
revive, if the prospects are not overshadowed by the probability of a 
return to Locofocoism. I shall be most happy to hear from you, and 
to know your views of the actual state of things in the West. Why 
is it that Mr. Clay is not sustained there? It seems as if the rank 
and file preferred any thing and every thing to him. I will soon write 
more leisurely to you, and state to you my views of things in this part 
of the country. Yours with great regard, 

J. DAVIS." 

LETTER FROM JUDGE m'lEAN. 

"Louisville, Ky., April 23, 1840. 
"Dear Sir 

" Some weeks ago I received a report by the judiciary committee of 
the Senate in relation to the Western circuits, which you had the kind- 
ness to inclose to me, and I should have written to you on the subject, 
had I not received a bill from Mr. Corwin, reported in the House of 
Representatives, which proposed a different arrangement of my circuit. 
Having lived in Ohio from the time I was ten years old, I should 
regret very much now to be divorced from the State in the discharge 
of jny judicial duties, unless the change should be desired by the bar, 
and the people of the State, and you must pardon me for expressing 
a hope that the proposed arrangement will not be insisted upon. 

I am not aware that Congress has at any time thrown a judge from 



COPIES OF LETTERS. 257 

his own State, which originally constituted a part of his circuit ; and 
I hope that I shall not be made the first victim of such an arrange- 
ment. If Michigan be taken from my circuit, and Missouri or Ken- 
tucky substituted, I shall not complain of the labor : when a vacancy 
shall occur in either of the circuits, of Baldwin, Taney, or Barbour • 
they can be reduced to two and a third judge given to the West. Such 
an arrangement will meet the wants of the country, for thirty years 
to come ; and until the above contingency shall occur, the arrangement 
proposed by the bill reported in the House of Representatives will be 
sufficient for the public service. In going to and returning from 
Mobile, Wayne will have to travel some 1400 miles. The court at 
that place in a year or two, will not require more than two weeks, and 
Mobile is within twelve hours sail of New Orleans. Florida must of 
course in a short time, be added to Wayne's circuit. 

"I shall be satisfied with any arrangement that does not banish me from 
ray own State. My residence in the vicinity of this place at my son- 
in-law's, is temporary. I have no intention of abandoning my citizen- 
ship in Ohio. Very truly yours, 
Hon. 0. H. Smith. JOHN McLEAN." 



LETTER FROM JUDGE STORY. 

"Washington, March 5, 1838. 
"Dear Sir: 

" I return you my thanks for your kindness in sending me a copy 
of your late speech in the Senate upon a topic of national interest. 
and which you have treated with the ability and comprehensiveness 
belonging to its merits. I should have done so before, but my engage- 
ments in the business of the court allow mc but little leisure, while I 
am here to read any thing but law ; I am usually compelled to postpone 
the perusal of other things until my return home. Mr. T. A. Howard 
addressed to me a letter which you were so good as to transmit to me 
this morning. May I ask the favor that you would transmit my reply, 
as it concerns matters interesting to him. I have the honor to 
remain with the highest respect, Yours, 

JOSEPH STORY." 
The Hon. Oliver H. Smith. 



LETTER FROM GENERAL CASS. 

"Detroit, May 24, 1847. 
"Dear Sir: 

" Since I wrote you a few days since, respecting the purchase of 

goods for the Indians, circumstances with the details of which I need 

17 



258 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

not trouble you, but arising out of imputations, with which I may 
be assailed, if I interfere with the direction of these purchases, as I 
am informed by letter received yesterday from Indiana, have induced 
me to transfer the whole matter to Gen. Tipton. I have been 
authorized by the war department to turn the money over to him, 
and to refer the subject to his discretion. He is upon the spot, and 
is able to manage as well, and in fact better without my interference 
than with it. I have endeavoi'ed to apportion the amount to be 
purchased among the various applicants, and had so informed Gen. 
Tipton. But this is now annulled, for I can not consent to subject 
myself to imputations where I am too little known to derive any 
protection from my life and character, and whence I am too far 
removed to meet and repel them. I therefore wash my hands of the 
whole transaction. Gen. Tipton will no doubt manage it zealously 
and faithfully. After asking your advice upon this subject I con- 
sidered this explanation due to you. 

" With much esteem I am sir, your ob't. serv't. 

LEWIS CASS." 
Hon. 0. H. Smith, 



LETTER FROM HENRY CLAT. 

"AsHLANB, 10th July, 1842. 
"My Dear Sir: 

" I thank you for your kind letter which affords evidence of your 
friendly recollection. I am delighted to hear of the fine spirit which 
prevails among the Whigs in Congress, notwithstanding the perfidy 
of the President. I am also gratified to learn that they will pass a 
good permanent Tariff. I sincerely hope, in the new aspect which the 
question has assumed, that is whether laws shall emanate from Con- 
gress, or from Mr. Tyler — our Georgia friends will rally around the 
independence of the Legislature. I think that if this permanent 
tariff also shall receive the veto, the next step which I understand 
is in contemplation, that of passing a tariff, limited to 20 per cent, 
with a provision for a good home valuation is wise and judicious. I 
think Congress ought not to adjourn until it passes a tariff, or demon- 
strates to the country that it can not pass one without a surrender of 
its constitutional independence. You will be threatened with a veto. 
But disregarding all such threats, I would vote for that measure 
which according to my own sense of duty, I thought right, whatever 
may be the opinion of Mr. Tyler : that is the only course by which you 
can secure your own approbation, and the support of the country. 



COPIES OF LETTERS. 259 

Present my best respects to your colleague, and to your neighbor 
Mr. Huntington, of Connecticut. I am truly 

H. CLAY." 
Tbe Hon. 0. H. Smith. 



LETTER FROM A. C. DODGE. 

"Burlington, Iowa Territory, May 26, 1841. 
"My Dear Sir: 

" I am charged by many enemies, with not having stood up for the 
rights of Iowa, while acting as her delegate last winter, in regard to 
the disputed boundary between our Territory and the State of Missouri, 
and some of them have even gone so far as to contend, that I am 
unqualified for delegate because of the relationship which exist between 
Senator Linn, of Missouri, and myself. It has also been charged 
in one of the newspapers opposed to me, that I should have, but 
did not, protest against the passage by the Senate of the bill sub- 
mitted by the Legislature of Missouri ; though her Senators and 
Representatives entitled a bill for the final and peaceable settle- 
ment of the boundary difiiculty between said State and the Territory 
of Iowa, and further, that I did not exert myself to have its provisions 
made more favorable to Iowa than they were as drawn by the Legis- 
lature of Missouri, or in a few words, that I was wholly derelict in 
my duty and allowed Dr. Linn to say and do what he pleased uncon- 
troverted by me. Thi« you know to be untrue and unjust to me, and 
I do therefore most earnestly request that you will please fjivor me 
with a letter giving a candid statement of my course, in reference to 
the subject above mentioned, so far as it came under your observation. 
This I feel the more emboldened to ask of you because of your 
uniform, kind and gentlemanly treatment during our brief acquaint- 
ance ; you having been a member of the committee of the judiciary 
of the Senate. And for your kindness and friendship toward my 
Teri'itory I shall feel the utmost gratitude. You are enabled to speak 
knowingly on the subject of my conduct, as it came under your 
observation ; and your observations and declarations will have no little 
weight with the people of Iowa, many of whom know you personally, 
and I may say that all do by character, and that they would repose the 
utmost confidence in any thing coming from -you. All that I ask 
is justice. Please let me hear from you soon. 

" I am sir, with high considerations of respect and esteem, your ob't. 
Berv't. A. C. DODGE." 

Hon. Oliver H. Smith. 



260 EAELY INDIANA TKIALS. 

The answer to the above letter placed the distinguished gentlemen 
referred to, upon grounds of honorable independence of each other 
in the matter referred to, no two Representatives of these different 
interests could have acted more firmly and independently than they 
did. Dr. Linn has long since deceased, and General Dodge is at this 
time the representative of this government near the Court of Spain. 



LETTER FROM HENRY CLAY. 

"Ashland, llth Nov., 1F42. 
"My Dear Sir: 

" I have this moment received your friendly letter. Your sugges- 
tions as to the cause of our defeat at recent elections are I think 
weighty and just. There is good reason to believe that when there is 
a single and direct contest between two candidates and only two, a 
different result will happen ; we shall then be aided too by all 
intervening measures of our opponents, in States where they have 
acquired the Legislative ascendency. 

'• I am truly concerned that any doubt should remain of your elec- 
tion. When I left yoii, I had other hopes and impressions, and shall 
trust that your apprehensions may not be realized ; although I agree 
with you that at present, a private station is the j)ost of honor and 
profit. 

" I expect to go in eight or ten days to Louisiana, where I expect to 
remain the greater part of the winter, and where I shall be glad to 
hear from you at Washington. In the meantime, I remain, 

" Truly your friend. 

H. CLAY." 
The Hon. 0. IL Smith. 

The result of the senatorial election referred to by Mr. Clay shewed 
the correctness of my anticipations. I was defeated by Mr. Hannegan 
succeeding over General Howard and myself; that election will be 
found in a separate sketch. 



ISAAC HELLEB. 261 



TRIAL OF ISAAC HELLER. 

The trial of the State of Indiana against Isaac Heller for the mur- 
der of his wife and three small children, came on at the spring term, 
1836, of the Union Circuit Court, Samuel Bigger president judge, 
Swan and Ogden associate judges. William J. Brown, circuit prosecu- 
ing attorney, assisted l»y James Perry, for the State. Martin M. Ray 
and Samuel W. Parker appeared, by appointment of the Court, for the 
prisoner. The jury was obtained with much difficulty. The case was 
brought on for trial at the first term after the killing took place, of 
which the counsel for the prisoner loudly complained, on the ground 
that the public excitement had not time to subside, and beside suffi- 
cient time had not been given to counsel to prepare for such a defense. 
The facts were incontrovertible ; there was a single ground of defense 
only that could be set up, that of Insanity. The case was prosecuted 
v.ith great ability, and defended with all the power of the able coun- 
sel for the prisoner. Mr. Parker at that day was young, ardent, zeal- 
ous and eloquent; for over two hours he addressed the jury, in the 
most impassioned, pathetic eloquence, showing the impossibility of 
the mind of the prisoner being sane, when he killed his own beloved 
wife and dear children. The prosecuting attorney, Mr. Brown, had 
the closing speech ; the bloody clothes of the wife and children lay on 
the table before the jury, the last appeal to the jury was conclusive. 
The Court charged the law ably and clearly, but the die was cast, the 
fate of Heller was sealed. A verdict of guilty of murder in the first 
degree followed : motion for a new trial overruled ; judgment on the 
verdict, and Isaac Heller was publicly execu.ted at Liberty, on the 29th 
day of April, 1836. 

As this is a case of importance to the courts and bar, I give the 
facts as received from Mr. Parker, one of the counsel engaged on the 
trial ; I was not present myself. I do this the more willingly, as the 
facts now stated will revise and correct the brief statement I made, 
when presenting this case in my published sketches in the Indianapolis 
Daily Journal. 

"On Saturday, the 27th of February, 1836, the village of Liberty, 
Union County, was shocked with the intelligence that Isaac Heller, a 
man living about a mile and a half east of the place, had killed his 
whole ftimily, wife and three small children ; after completing their 
destruction, he had fled from the house. The neighbors soon learned 
the fatal occurrence, set off in pursuit, and overtook him about eight 
miles from his house ; apprehended him, he making no x'esistance, and 
without the least hesitation acknowledging his guilt. 



262 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

*' Heller had been tried once before, in tbe State of Pennsylvania, for 
murder, and had been acquitted on the ground of insaniti/. He was 
then an unmarried man ; jumped from his bed in the night time, 
alarmed the family where he lived, screaming ' the kingdom of heaven 
is at hand.' The fated girl had concealed herself under the bed ; 
he searched, found her, went up stairs, took his pocket-knife from 
his pocket, returned, pulled the little girl from her hiding-place, and 
severed her head from her body with the knife. Telling the facts of 
this case to one of his neighbors shortly before the last killing, he 
said, ' I have long had it in my mind to kill my family, but have not 
as yet quite made up my mind to do it. If I should, I think it very 
likely I should come right off and kill you and your family.' 

" After he was acquitted in Pennsylvania of the first killing, on the 
plea of insanity, he came to Indiana, married, had three children, was 
much attached to his family. For some years he appeared entirely 
sane; joining the church of the United Brethren, he took part in their 
meetings, made repeated efforts to preach, neglected his business, 
was soon without property, and neglected to provide for his family. 
During the last two years he frequently acted like a wild man — was 
twice taken into the care of the overseers of the poor, and pronounced 
on these occasions insane by the physicians. During the last six 
months, he almost entirely quit labor, except chopping a little wood 
for his own fire. Would sit day and night in his cabin with his head 
down, apparently in a deep study, picking his finger nails, and occa- 
sionally the flesh of his hands, until the blood came. He frequently 
expressed to his wife and some neighbors^ great horror of the poor 
house, stating he would rather die than be separated from his family. 
On the morning of the killing, a neighbor called to see him. and 
found things looking much more cheerful than usual. Heller seemed 
much more free to talk, and did talk considerable about his feeling 
better than he had for some time, and about renting some land, and 
going to work on it. A sister of Mrs. Heller, about nine years old, 
was living in the family. After the neighbor left, a man passed along 
the road ; Heller watched carefully until he got out of sight. Mrs. 
Heller was sitting by the fire with a' sun-bonnet on, nursing her 
infant, about a month old. Heller took his ax from under the bed, 
went to the fire-place, rubbing his fingers over the edge; his wife 
asked him what he was going to do. He replied, he was going to 
chop wood. The wife then told the children to get some apples out 
from under the bed; the little ones crawled under the bed; the little 
sister-in-law stood near, looking at Heller. She saw him raise the ax 
and strike his wife a full blow about the chin and neck. Seeing this, 



ISAAC HELLER. 263 

she sprang to the door, opened it, and fled to the next neighbor's. 
crying murder as she ran. After she had got some two liundred yards. 
she saw Heller coming round the corner of the house looking for her. 

" Heller told how he went back to the house ; his little son was coming 
to him ; he split him down with the ax, and chopped his head ofi"; dragged 
his little daughter from under the bed, placed his foot upon her breast, 
and as she raised her hands for protection, at one blow severed the 
fingers from one hand, and nearly took off her head. He then rolled 
the mother off her infant, cut its head off, and fled. There Avas snow 
on the ground ; his bloody tracks were easily traced fur some distance — 
his steps showed that he had fled in a run. After going about one 
hundred and fifty yards, he fell down, got up, and continued his 
rapid flight some quarter of a mile ; having reached the highway, he 
kept it some three quarters of a mile, then took a lane a short distance, 
then took through a strip of woods, again entering the highway ; and 
was arrested near the Ohio State line. Made no i^esistance ; I'etuvned 
without objection, confessed the whole matter, expressed no regrets, 
assigned no cause for the bloody deed, nor did he ever assign any 
particularly. He then talked, and continued to talk, about the mat- 
ter, without the least hesitancy or compunction. A number of clergy- 
men attended him on the scaffold. The Rev. Mr. Beswick prayed, 
and the Rev. Mr. Ball preached an impressive sermon. Heller then 
addressed the crowd for the space of twenty-five minutes ; his voice 
was loud and clear, and his manner bore every indication of compo- 
sure. He gave a short history of his life, condemned the crime for 
which he was about to suffer, as one of the most aggravated, and hor- 
rible that human nature could perpetrate. Spoke in the highest 
terms of his wife and family, and warned the crowd in the most 
impressive manner to avoid even the first inducement to crime, and 
not to suffer themselves, as he had been, to be drawn from the path of 
virtue to the scaffold, by listening to the suggestions of the Evil One. 
He expressed a hope that he had received pardon from his God for the 
crimes he had committed, although his crime was as great as it was 
unnatural." 

The editor of the " Star and Banner " of Liberty, in giving the above 
statement of the scene at the execution, adds, " Perhaps the deed for 
which he has suffered stands unparalleled in the annals of crime, yet 
he has now attoned for his offense. Justice is satisfied ; and will not 
his fellow-beings be also ? Let the grave close over him, but let not 
his fate, and the solemn warning he gave on the scaffold, be forgotten." 

My friend, Mr. Samuel W. Parker, in giving me the facts of this case, 
very justly says, "More than twenty-one years have passed since this 



264 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

trial ; the plea of insanity is now better understood and appreciated 
than it was then. The worse feature in the case, it has always struck 
me, was the sliort time from the killing to the trial, and then to the 
execution ; but the prisoner was without money or friends, his crime 
chilled the heart's blood of all around him, and the cry of crucify him, 
was relentless, though the Court, jury and counsel were cool, calm, 
and patient throughout the trial. But, I confess, I never felt right 
about the matter. I was then quite young in my profession, had not 
a moment for preparation, but I never made a two hours argument to 
a jury in my life, with more zeal, and more to my own satisfaction, 
than on that occasion. And so I labored again with the Court on the 
next morning for a new trial. My struggle, and that of Mr. Ray, the 
senior counsel, throughout, was to establish the plea of insanity of the 
prisoner." 

No person at this day can look over this case, without at once con- 
curring with the able counsel for Heller, that he was not an accounta- 
able being under the laws of the country, that he should have been 
acquitted on the ground of i/tso««'(y. The Court should have set aside 
the verdict, g;ranted a new trial, and continued the cause until the 
nest term, to give time to the people to quiet their feelings, and come 
up to the trial under the majesty of the law, rather than that of retal- 
iatory justice. I knew the judge well; he intended to do right, but 
he was young on the bench, the jury had convicted Heller of murder 
in the first degree, and he did not feel that he ought to set aside the 
verdict, merely because he differed from the jury. He was wrong, and 
Heller suffered death on the scaffold for an act committed in a state of 
insanity ! 



COL. WILLIAM C. PKESTON. 265 

COL. WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 

Among the distinguished Senators who composed the body while I 
was a member, it affords me pleasure to introduce to the reader, Col. 
William C. Preston of South Carolina ; the colleague of John C. Cal- 
houn. In person he was tall and commanding, over sis feet, face of a 
fine mold, hair sandy, flowing gracefully over his broad high forehead, 
eyes gray, and rather sunken, walk majestic, though stooping slightly. 
Col. Preston stood among the finest speakers of the Senate, a little 
inclined I thought to declamation. Still, with the galleries and those 
who are charmed with the highest class of declamation, he stood first 
among the first of that distinguished body. The Colonel received a 
classical education, was a matured and finished scholar, and always 
spoke in high terms of his Alma Mater. Pie was president of the 
South Carolina College, many years. 

I had become very intimate with the Colonel. He abounded in 
anecdotes and fine stories. We were frequently together in the passage 
back of the president's chair. On one occasion, Mr. Clay, Mr. Web- 
ster and Col. Preston were seated in conversation, when I joined them. 
The subject was " true eloquence." I heard each of those distinguished 
Senators define it, as he understood the term. Col. Preston, turnin" 
to me — -"Mr. Smith, what is true eloquence ? " "I am not able to 
define it satisfactorily to myself, but if you will pardon me, I will tell 
you what the world thinks it is not, by referring to your speech the 
other day, on the bill for the relief of the heirs of Hall." Mr. Clay. 
— '' let us hear it." " You know Col. Preston, as chairman of the 
committee of military afiairs, made an eloquent speech last week, iu 
support of a bill granting relief to the heirs of Hall, for the use of 
his improved rifle, by the United States. 

" While he was speaking, the agent of the heirs was sitting in the 
gallery, listening to the speech. The vote was taken, and the bill 
received just six votes ; I voted against the bill. The Senate adjourned. 
I had dined, when the agent called at my room, and earnestly requested 
me to move a reconsideration. I told him it would do no good, as the 
bill could not pass; he looked imploringly at me. • All I ask is, that 
you will move to reconsider, and just tell the Senate what the merits 
of the bill are.' ' Did you not hear the eloquent speech of Col. Pres- 
ton ? ' ' Yes, I heard it ; but the truth is, Col. Preston is so eloquent 
that the Senate can not understand him.' " With a hearty laugh we 
separated. The Colonel often asked me afterward, with a smile, when 
he closed his brilliant speeches, if I thought his eloquence beyond 
the comprehension of the Senate. 



266 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

I deem it proper to give to the reader of these sketchesfbrief extracts 
from speeches of these distinguished men, showing the character of 
their minds, and their style in debate. Their politics are another 
matter. 

EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH OF COL. PRESTON. 

" Mr. Preston said, that in the course of the discussion on the loan 
bill, he did not think that the facts which occasioned its introduction, 
and made its passage necessary, were sufficiently borne in mind. They 
were of a very important and imperious character, and could not be 
put with too much emphasis. The Government is out of money, and 
out of credit — it is in a bankrupt condition. Its paper has been pro- 
tested, and its indorsers held responsible for ruinous liabilities. Treas- 
ury notes are at a discount of five per cent, and the creditors of the 
Government are thus paid in a depreciated paper, a less amount than 
they have earned, and we have stipulated to pay. It is at once tyranny 
and fraud — a violation of contract by the force of power. We should 
understand our position, and not mince words in stating it. 

" The Government stands discredited and dishonored. The person 
and the property of an individual, under such circumstances, would 
be seized by the minions of the law. This disgrace has penetrated, 
and is felt throughout all the ramifications of the Government, and 
taints every agent of it, even in foreign countries; for drafts of our 
functionaries abroad have gone back protested, proclaiming to the 
world our shameful condition. This is a serious injury to our country. 
We all — every one of us — are soiled by it ; and feel our citizenship with 
a less proud and lofty sentiment of patriotism. The pride of country 
is a main pillar of republics. National honor is a very substantial 
thing, and ought to be cherished and preserved not less scrupulously 
in discharging the homely duties of good faith and honesty, than in 
the presence of foreign nations, or on the battle-field. From some 
cause or other we have permitted it to be touched, and we should has- 
ten, with eager solicitude to redeem it. I could have hoped sir, that 
in this acknowledged condition of things, under a pressure of disas- 
trous emergency, we should have addressed ourselves with one consent, 
to the application of the remedy, without wasting time in ascertaining 
the cause, or denouncing the authors of the evil in bitter and unavail- 
ing recriminations, when it is manifest that, whosesoever the blame, it 
is a common calamity of our common country, which should be redeemed 
by a united and vigorous effort of all who love that country or value 
its honor. 

" The case is hardly less pressing, than if our flag was borne down in 
the tide of battle, and we paused in the rescue, to settle some personal 



COL. WILLIAM C. PRESTON. 267 

differences. I am sorry to see this, like every other occasion seized 
upon to indulge in partisan assaults and common strifes ; and that the 
gentlemen of the opposition should think proper to assail us, and throw 
themselves upon us, and incumber us with difficulties, and call off our 
attention, by taunts and revilings, at the instant we are advancing with 
all possible speed to so sacred an object. I will pause a moment, and 
but a moment to dispose of these assailants, so much more intent on 
attacking us than relieving the country. They say that all this is our 
doing ; that our prodigality has created the debt ; that our want of 
forecast has ftiiled to provide for it ; and that it is we who have 
destroyed the public credit. If it were so — if our folly or our crime 
has brought on this state of things — can the Senators of the opposi- 
tion find, in reason, humanity, or patriotism an excuse for their leth- 
argy, or rather active hindrance of our exertions? 

'■ But what shall be said or thought of their conduct, when it is known 
as everybody does know, that the country is brought to this pass, by 
their own mismanagement, by years and years of misgovernment, 
prodigality and recklessness, and that we, the Whigs, have been but 
this moment sent, by an indignant and suffering people, to relieve the 
body politic from the ruinous coiirse of their empiricism? Both the 
Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Buchanan), and the Senator from 
New Hampshire (Mr. Woodbury), charge upon us the mighty evils 
which oppress the people, and that we, in thirteen months, and not 
yet at the end of the first Constitutional Congress, have done all this. 
Sir, this vigorous and young republic could not be thus struck down 
at one blow ; these gray hairs are not of one night's growth ; this 
decrepitude, is not of paralysis, but of long and wasting disease, aggra- 
vated by unskillful treatment and deleterious drugs, requiring time as 
well as potent remedies to effect a cure. Where is that country which 
the mistaken confidence of the people intrusted to them five years ago ? 
Where that overflowing Treasury, that cornucopia of commerce ; that 
abounding agriculture ? Did you give them back to us as you received 
them, or in their stead chaff and husks? 

" One thing at least is clear, that the wretched system of Government 
paper which is now terminated, as all systems of Government paper 
must terminate inevitably, in depreciation and bankruptcy, was of 
their begetting and nourishing. They began it — they instituted the 
system of Treasury notes. The late administration is the first in the 
history of our Government, that in time of profound peace, was com- 
pelled to resort to borrowing, and chose that most fallacious, dangerous 
and ruinous mode of borrowing by the issue of Treasury notes. They 
destroyed the equilibrium between expenditures and income, and thus 



268 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

deranged the whole financial order. From the beginning, they have 
lived and had their being on Treasury notes. To use the word of the 
Senator from New Hampshire, more expressive perhaps than pure, they 
fed their spendthrift-nest throughout on this paper. Session after ses- 
sion they rushed into this hall, proclaiming that the country was in 
danger ; that the Treasury was empty ; that credit would ftiil ; and beg- 
ging and supplicating for a few more Treasury notes. They were 
always in debt, and paid by giving their notes. After the first terrific 
explosion in 1837, the Treasury was a mere crater, which no man 
might look into, throwing up at irregular periods, masses of Treasury 
notes, with flashes of lurid light from the agonized Secretary, who 
writhed below like the giant under Etna. 

" It is curious and mournful to see what an amazing extent of wide- 
spread and multifarious embarrassments they transmitted to us — a gen- 
eral pressure and bankruptcy ; a deplorable relaxation of morals ; a 
rotten navy ; an army exhausted by inefi'ectual toils, and thinned by 
malignant diseases ; a treasury empty and discredited ; a system of 
finance exploded ; a miserable, inglorious and most expensive war with 
savages, and all around the horizon of our foreign relations, angry and 
darkening elements. Yes sir, in respect to our foi'eign relations every 
difficulty has been inherited from our predecessors — every one. 

"The Senator (Mr. Buchanan), whispers the Creole case ; even that 
is not new. Here are the northeast boundary and the northwest boun- 
dary questions, of many years standing, and with difficulties which 
necessarily augment by time and neglect. Here is the Caroline case, 
in regard to which the patriotic wrath and fury of the gentlemen, after 
having been securely bottled up for three years, has lately burst out 
with so much foam and splutter. You saw your vessel in flames — you 
saw the smoking blood of your murdered citizen — you looked down on 
his mutilated body, whirled about in the eddies of Niagara, and calmly 
referred for redress to distant and equivocal negociation ; and when 
years had passed by, and indignation cooled, and sorrows subsided, 
and you lucre no longer responsihle, your wailings broke forth ; your 
indignation burst into spontaneous combustion, and you were ready ' to 
weep, to fight, to tear thyself, to drink up Eisel and eat a crocodile. 

" As to the Creole, you left us that too ; for precisely the same ques- 
tions and principles were involved in the Bermuda cases of the Comet 
and the Enterprise, the negociations upon which (ably conducted no 
doubt), by a distinguished and lamented Secretary, terminated in a re- 
jection by the British Minister, of a proposition to permit ourvessels un- 
der certain circumstances, to lie in the roadstead under the guns of Brit- 
ish forts, because such service would be dishonorable to British afTairs. 



THE SWOED AND STAFF. 269 



SWORD OF WASHINGTON AND STAFF OF FRANKLIN. 

I HAVE thought the reader might like to see a sketch of the presen- 
tation of the sword of Washington, and the staff of Franklin, in the 
House of Representatives, of the United States, in February, 1843. I 
witnessed the scene, it was truly imposing. The House was filled to 
overflowing, the galleries a jam, the President and Cabinet, the Supreme 
judges, the foreign Ministers, and crowds of citizens, filled every aisle. 
George W. Summers, one of the most distinguished representatives 
of Virginia, was selected by the donors to present the sacred relics to 
Congress, and John Quincy Adams was expected to second Mr. Sum- 
mers. The address of Mr. Summers, and the remarks of Mr. Adams, 
were so brief and full of interest that I give them entire to the reader. 

PROCEEDINGS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

Washington, February 7th, 1843. 

Mr. Summers, one of the Representatives from the State of Vir- 
ginia rose, and addressed the House as follows : 

" Mr. Speaker ; I rise for the purpose of discharging an oiSce not con- 
nected with the ordinary business of a Legislative assembly. Yet, 
in asking permission to interrupt for a moment the regular order of 
parliamentary proceedings, I can not doubt that the proposition which 
I have to submit will prove as gratifying to the House as it may be 
unusual. 

Mr. Samuel T. Washington, a citizen of Franklin county, in the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia, and one of my constituents, has honored me 
with the commission of presenting in his name and on his behalf, to the 
Congress of the United States, and through that body to the people of 
the United States, two most interesting and valuable relics connected 
with the past history of our country, and with men whose achievments 
both in the field and in the Cabinet, best illustrate and adorn our 
annals. One is the sword worn by George Washington, first as a 
colonel in the Colonial service of Virginia, in Forbes' campaign 
against the French and Indians, and afterward during the whole period 
of the war of Independence as Commander-in-chief of the American 
army. It is a plain couteau or hanger, with a green hilt and silver 
guard. On the upper ward of the scabbard is engraven, ' I. Bailey, 
Fish Kill.' It is accompanied by a buckskin belt, which is secured 
by a silver buckle and clasp, whereon are engraven the letters ' G. W.' 
and the figures ' 1757.' These are all of the plainest workmanship, 
but substantial and in keeping with the man and with the times to 



270 EARLY INDIAJsM TRIALS. 

which tliey belonged. The history of this sword is perfectly authen- 
tic, and leaves no shadow of doubt as to its identity. The last will 
and testament of General Washington bearing date on the 9th day of 
February, 1799, contains, among a great variety of bequests, the fol- 
lowing clause. 

" 'To each of my nephews, William Augustine Washington, George 
Lewis, George Steptoe Washington, Bushrod Washington and Sam- 
uel Washington, I give one of the swords or couteaux of which 
I may die possessed ; and they are to chose in the order they are 
named. These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to 
unsheathe them for the purpose of shedding blood, except it be for 
self-defense, or in defense of their country and its rights, and, in the 
latter case, to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in 
their hands to the .relinquishment thereof.' 

" In the distribution of the swords hereby devised among the five 
nephews therein enumerated, the one now presented fell to the share 
of Samuel Washington, the devisee last named in the clause of the 
will which I have just read. 

" This gentleman, who died a few years since, in the county of 
Kanawha, and who was the father of Samuel T. Washington, the 
donor, I knew well. I have often seen this sword in his possession, 
and received from himself the following account of the manner in 
which it become his property in the division made among the devisees. 
He said that he knew it to have been the side-arm of General Wash- 
ington during tlie Revolutionary War ; not that used on occasions 
of parade and review, but the constant service swoirl of the great 
chief; that he has himself seen Gen. Washington wear this identical 
sword, he presumed for the last time, when, in 1794, he reviewed the 
Maryland and Virginia forces, then concentrated at Cumberland 
under the command of General Lee, and destined to co-operate with 
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops, then assembled at Bedford, 
in suppressing what has been called the ' Whisky Insurrection.' Gen. 
Washington was the President of the United States, and as such was 
commander-in-chief of the army. It is known that it was his inten- 
tion to lead the army in person upon that occasion had he found it 
necessary, and he went to Bedford and Cumberland prepared for that 
event. The condition of things did not require it, and he returned 
to his civil duties at Philadelphia. Mr. Samuel Washington held the 
commission of a captain at that time himself, and served in that 
campaign, many of the incidents of which he has related to me. He 
was anxious to obtain this particular sword, and preferred it to all 
the others, among which was the ornamented and costly present from 



THE SWORD AND STAFF. 271 

tlie great Frederick. At the time of the division among the nephews, 
without intimating what his preference was, he jocosely remarked, 
' that inasmuch as he was the only one of them then present who 
had participated in military service they ought to permit him to take 
choice.' This suggestion was met in the same spirit in which it was 
made, and the selection being awarded him, he chose this, the plainest, 
and, intrinsically, the least valuable of any : simply because it was 
the ' Battle Sword.' I am also in possession of the most satisfactory 
evidence furnished by Colonel George C. Washington, of Georgetown, 
the nearest male relative now living of General Washington, as to the 
identity of this sword. 

This information, as to its history, was derived from his father, 
William Augustine Washington, the devisee first named in the clause 
of the will which I have read ; from his uncle, the late Judge Bush- 
rod Washington, of the Supreme Court; and Major Lawrence Lewis, 
the acting executor of General Washington's will — all of whom con- 
curred in the statement that the true service stvord was that selected 
by Captain Samuel Washington. It remained in this gentleman's 
possession until his death, esteemed by him the most precious me- 
mento of his illustrious kinsman. It then became the property of 
his son, "who, animated by that patriotism which so characterized the 
' Father of his Country,' has consented that such a relic ought not 
to be appropriated by an individual citizen, and has instructed me, 
his representative, to ofi"er it to the nation, to be preserved in its public 
depositaries as the common property of all, since its ofiice has been 
to achieve and secure the common liberty of all. He has, in like 
manner, requested me to present this cane to the Congress of the 
United States, deeming it not unworthy the public acceptance. This 
was once the property of the philosopher and patriot, Benjamin 
Franklin. By a codicil to his last will and testament, we find it thus 
disposed of: 

" ' My fine crab-tree walking-stick, with a gold head, curiously 
wrought in the form of the cap of liberty. I give to my friend, and 
to the friend of mankind, General Washington. If it were a scepter, 
he has merited it and would become it.' 

" General Washington, in his will, devises this cane as follows : Itein. 
' To ray brother, Charles Washington, I give and bequeath the gold- 
headed cane left me by Dr. Franklin in his will' Captain Samuel 
Washington was the only surviving son of Charles Washington, the 
devisee, from whom he derived, by inheritance, this interesting memo- 
rial; and having transmitted it to his son, Samuel T. Washington, the 
latter thus seeks to bestow it worthily, by associating it with the battle 



272 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

sword, iu a gift to liis countrymen. I cordially concur with Mr. 
Wasliington in tlie opinion that they each merit public preservation ; 
and I obey, with pleasure, his wishes in here presenting them, in his 
name, to the nation. Let the sword of the hero and the staif of the 
philosopher go together. Let them have place among the proudest 
trophies and most honored memorials of our national achievements. 

'■ Upon that staif once leaned the sage, of whom it has been said, 
'He snatched the lightning from heaven, and the scepter from tyrants.' 
A mighty arm once wielded this sword in a righteous cause, even unto 
the dismemberment of empire. In the hand of Washington, this was 
'the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.' It was never drawn except 
in the defense of public liberty ; it was never sheathed until a glori- 
ous and triumphant success returned it to the scabbard, without a 
stain of cruelty or dishonor upon its blade ; it was never surrendered 
except to that country which bestowed it. 

Mr. John Quincy Adams, one of the Representatives from the 
State of Massachusetts, then addressed the House as follows : 

" In presenting the resolution which I hold in my hand to the House, 
it may, perhajjs, be expected that I should accompany it with some 
remarks suitable to the occasion ; and yet, sir, I never rose to address 
this House under a deeper conviction of the want of words to express 
the emotions that I feel. It is precisely because occasions like this 
are adapted to produce universal sympathy, that little can be said by 
any one, but what, in the language of the heart, in tones not loud but 
deep, every one present has silently said to himself. My respected 
friend from Virginia, by whom this offering of patriotic sentiment has 
been presented to the Keprescntative Assembly of the nation, has, it 
seems to me, already said all that can be said suitable to this occasion. 
In parting from him, as, after a few short days, we must all do, it will, 
on my part, be sorrowing that, in all probability, I shall see his face 
and hear his voice no more. But his words of this day are planted in 
my memory, and will there remain till the last pulsation of my heart. 
The sword of Washington ! the staff of Franklin ! Oh ! sir, what 
associations are linked in adamant with those names ! Washington 
the warrior of human freedom — Washington, whose sword, as my 
friend has said, was never drawn but in the cause of his country, and 
never sheathed when needed in his country's cause ! Franklin, the 
philosopher of the thunder-bolt, the printing-jiress, and the plough- 
share ! What names are these in the scanty catalogue of the bene- 
fiictors of human kind! Washington and Franklin ! What other 
two men, whose lives belong to the eighteenth century of Christen- 
dom, have left a deeper impression of themselves upon the age in 



THE SWORD AND STAFF. 273 

which they lived, and upon all after time ! Washington, the warrior 
and legislator ! In war, contending by the wager of battle for the 
independence of his country, and for the freedom of the human race ; 
ever manifesting, amid its horrors, by precept and example, his rev- 
erence for the laws of peace, and for the tenderest sympathies of hu- 
manity ; in peace, soothing the ferocious spirit of discord, among his 
own countrymen, into harmony and union, and giving to that very 
sword now jjresented to his country, a charm more potent than that 
attributed in ancient times to the lyre of Orpheus. Franklin ! the 
mechanic of his own fortune, teaching in early youth, under the 
shackles of indigence, the way to wealth, and in the shade of obscu- 
rity the path to greatness ; in the maturity of manhood, disarming the 
thunder of its terrors, the lightning of its fatal blast, and wresting 
from the tyrant's hand the still more aflSictive scepter of oppression : 
while descending into the vale of years, traversing the Atlantic ocean, 
braving in the dead of winter the battle and the breeze, bearing in his 
hand the charter of Independence, which he had contributed to form 
and tendering, from the self-created nation to the mightiest monarchs 
of Europe, the olive branch of peace, the mercurial wand of commerce, 
and the amulet of protection and safety to the man of peace on the 
pathless ocean, from the inexorable cruelty and merciless rupaeity of 
war. And finally, in the last stage of life, with fourscore winters 
upon his head, under the torture of an incurable disease, returning to 
his native land, closing his days as the chief magistrate of his adopted 
Commonwealth, after contributing by his counsels, under the Presi- 
dency of Washington, and recording his name, under the sanction of 
devout prayer invoked by him to God, to that Constitution under the 
authority of which we are here assembled, as the representatives of the 
North American people, to receive, in their name and for them, these 
venerable relics of the wise, the valiant, and the good founders of our 
great confederated republic — these sacred symbols of our golden age. 
May they be deposited among the archives of our Government ! and 
may every American who shall hereafter behold them, ejaculate a min- 
gled offering of praise to that Supreme Ruler of the universe, by 
whose tender mercies our Union has been hitherto preserved through 
all the vicissitudes and revolutions of this turbulent world, and of 
prayer for the continuance of these blessings, by the dispensations of 
his Providence, to our beloved country, from age to age, till time shall 
be no more! 
18 



274 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



LEVI WOODBURY. 

I BECAME personally acquainted with Judge Woodbury the sub- 
ject of this sketch, when he took his seat in the Senate of the United 
States, as the colleague of Franklin Pierce. Judge Woodbury brought 
with hiui to the Senate, a high reputation for industry, strong common 
sense, and great financial ability, with a long and matured experience 
on the Supreme Bench of his own State, and as Secretary of the Treas- 
ury of the United States : as a speaker, he was not known. In per- 
son Judge Woodbury was about the common hight, heavy and 
strongly built, large chest, broad across the shoulders, short neck, 
capacious brain, head bald, retreating forehead, thin hair on the back 
of his head, features fine, eye-lashes heavy, blue sunken eyes. His 
countenance expressed much study and continued mental labor. The 
first time he rose to speak, all eyes were upon him. 1 listened to him 
with much interest. I had heard all the other distinguished Senators, 
and I was then about to hear one of the favorite sons of New Eng- 
land. 

He commenced calmly and slowly, clear, plain, and distinct in 
his annunciation, and without the least attempt at what is termed 
eloquence ; as he progressed he warmed with his subject, his voice rose, 
higher and higher, until he filled the chamber ; he became more and 
more interesting as he developed his powers : they were not those of 
impassioned eloquence, his was the eloquence of facts and conclusions, 
presented in plain, vigorous language, understood by all. His mind had 
so long dwelt upon figures and finance, that it was not expected that 
he would plunge into the whirlpool of exciting political debate, that 
sometimes rocked the Senate from center to circumference. His was 
the field of usefulness. He was emphatically a working utilitarian, 
with little imagination, except what was closely connected with the 
facts with which he was dealing. Judge Woodbury, like all the other 
great men of our nation was made so by self-labor, no man is created 
great, any more than the main-spring of the watch is created by nature 
alone. It is labor that makes both. I have often thought that Mr. 
Wirt's life of Patrick Henry had done much injury, as it seemed to 
say, that study and preparation, were not essential to true greatness. If 
Patrick Henry was an exception to the rule, which I very much doubt, 
it was one that it will not do for our young men to follow, unless 
they are sure that they are by nature Patrick Henrys. 

I give an extract from a speech of Judge Woodbury, that the reader 
may see his style. 



LEVI WOODBURY. 275 



EXTRACT FROM HIS SPEECH ON THE LOAN BILL. 

Mr. President: — All admit that this is an alarming exigency in 
our financial afi'airs. The bill on your table, as well as the proposed 
amendment to it, both look to the dire necessity of borrowing some- 
thing, not only in a period of profound peace, but at a moment when 
our credit has suddenly become depreciated ; friends and foes must, 
therefore, be anxious to effect a loan on the best terms which are 
practicable. As a general rule, the loan should be small in amount 
as possible, and the best terms would certainly be the lowest rate of 
interest and the shortest period which are attainable in so critical a 
position. We can hardly appreciate the change, in that position and 
its present deplorable character, unless we advert to our situation one 
short year ago, with no permanent debt of our own, with a small tem- 
porary one of only five or six millions, and that above or at par, with 
a reduced and reducing expenditure, with a revenue from lands and 
ctistoms, ample under slight revisions in the latter to meet such an 
expenditure, and extinguish the whole debt, and with a national credit 
untarnished, undepreciated, and unsuspected. 

If, more in sorrow than in anger, or in party reproach, we contrast 
that lofty position with what now stares us in the face — a hideous 
mass of large permanent debts, and a still larger temporary one — 
greatly increased expenditures, depreciated stocks, and protest on pro- 
test for non-payment of ordinary demands, as well as temporary loans, 
our hearts must recoil at the sight. When we look further, and see 
the whole land-revenue squandered, and an impossibility of getting 
onward in such a ruinous career, without further disgrace — further 
acts of bankruptcy, or further loans at rank usury — it all admonishes 
us solemnly that something wrong must have produced such disasters, 
and that something new and efficient must be adopted to remove them. 
Let us examine the subject, then, in a manner which an emergehey 
so calamitous demands, rising for once above party or the mere poli- 
ties of the day, and forgetting every thing but what is required of u« 
as statesmen, patriots, and Senators. I shall, therefore, forbear to crimi- 
nate or recriminate ; and in such a condition of peril to the country, 
and its high character, I will devote ray whole efforts to discover the 
best mode of relief through a loan, which appears to comport with 
public honor and public safety ; and which, at the same time, bids 
fair to be crowned with success. Hence, I am willing to overlook 
every consideration of form in this bill, and every subordinate objec- 
tion, if only the main features of it can be made such as are most likely 
to insure a creditable escape from present ignominy. I say nothing, 



276 EARLY IXDIA^^A TRIALS. 

then, as to the extension of the time for a year or two, within which 
the loan must be made, if made at all. Nor will I be captious con- 
cerning the amount which the Executive is authorized to borrow, 
though, in one view, it is much too large, and in another, it is not 
large enough, by several millions to carry out the policy now in force. 
Nor will I dwell on the better reasons which exist for a monthly pub- 
lication of what is done under this bill, as in the case of all our Treas- 
ury note bill, rather than a report of it to Congress hereafter, which, 
of course, could call for it without provision. Nor am I tenacious as 
to the form of advertising and of accepting offers, though, in some 
respects, exceptionable. Nor will I stop to expose the great danger 
of issuing certificates virtually to bearer, and also in sums as small as 
fifty dollars or fifty cents, and thus open the door to infinite difficul- 
ties, as frauds and forgeries in respect to the payment of interest, and 
create a paper circulation, not redeemable at all for twenty years, and 
fbr discharging which not even the one dollar of specie to three of 
paper is required to be kept, which the original exchequer project 
provided for. 

Nor will I, on this occasion, so pressing and momentous, indulge 
even in reply, and at any length, to many party strictures, made in 
the course of this debate, by Senators on the other side. They have 
been such as swelling the real expenses of the last administration to 
thirty-five millions, on an average, yearly, when all who examine with 
care, know and admit them to have been but twenty-seven and a frac- 
tion. Such as taunting us with the Florida war, when our opponents 
engaged to end it in a single month, but have not yet finished it, 
though more than a year has elapsed ; and such as asking for the 
monuments over the country of our expenses, and declaring that none 
exist, when all the civil, foreign, judicial, legislative, military, and 
naval operations of the country, have been promptly sustained ; im- 
mense removals of Indians made to give place to Christian civilization 
— large pension payments continued to the survivors of the Eevolu- 
tion — numerous public buildings erected — arsenals, armories, barracks, 
and forts built — roads extended, rivers and harbors in many cases 
improved, and peace maintained in a most perilous crisis on both our 
Northern and Northeastern, as well as Southwestern frontiers. 



IDENTITY OF A HORSE. 277 

IDENTITY OF A HORSE. 

At a term of Marion Circuit Court, William J. Peasley presiding, 
there came on to be tried an action of replevin, brought by James 
Musgrove against William Martin, for a brown horse. Gov. Wallace 
and myself for the plaintiff. Wick and Barbour for the defendant. 
The only question in controversy before the Court and jury was, as 
to the identity of the horse : both parties claimed him, the defendant 
Martin was in possession, and had been for two years. Our client 
had lost his horse about the time that Martin purchased the horse in 
question. There were some forty witnesses, good substantial men, 
reliable as to truth, and of unquestionable veracity : men who would 
not have sworn false knowingly for ten such horses. We had the 
opening and close before the jury, and of course led off with our testi- 
mony by the examination of some twenty witnesses. We proved the 
horse positively to belong to our client, tracing our title back to the 
man that raised him. He was a brown horse, fifteen hands high, no 
white marks, a scratch near his hip. We asked our witnesses how 
they identified the horse, they answered promptly that he had been 
scratched near the hip by a sharp root of a blown-up tree when he 
was ploughing in the field. They had examined the horse in question 
and found the scratch ; they further identified him by the fact that he 
was taught when a colt to lean his ears when a finger was pointed at 
him ; he also had a shufiling pace : our identity was complete, the horse 
we felt sure was ours. Gov. Wallace rather waggishly winked at 
Judge Wick, as much as to say " do you give it up." It looked to 
me, that the day was ours. The witnesses for the defendant swore 
just as positively as ours had, that the horse belonged to Martin, the 
defendant. They proved him up from a suckling colt, beyond a shad- 
dow of a doubt in the minds of the witnes.ses. The scratch under the 
hip was proved to have been made by a nail in the stable door. The 
pacing was proved to be the slow gait of the defendant's horse, and 
the lean of the ears, was proved to have been contracted when a colt. 
Thus stood the proof about equally balanced — positive on both sides, 
when Mr. Barbour asked one of our witnesses how old our horse was. 
He answered he would be seven years old that ftll. This fixed the 
age of our horse. They then proved that their horse was only five 
years old. Our client insisted that the witnesses were mistaken as to 
the age of the horse of the defendant, and we sent experts to look at 
his teeth, but unfortunately, they testified that the horse was five years 
old in the fall. This turned the scale against us, and the jury found 
the horse to be the property of Martin the defendant. 



278 EA.B,LY INDIANA TRIALS. 



JOHN FREEMAN. 

In the niontli of June in tlie year 1853, during my absence from 
liome, the citizens of Indianapolis were surprised by the arrest under 
the fugitive slave law, of John Freeman a negro man, upon the affi- 
davit made by Pleasant Ellington of Kentucky, before commissioner 
William Sullivan, claiming Freeman as his slave. Freeman had resi- 
ded with his family many years in Indianapolis, was known to most 
of the citizens as an honest, industrious, sober man : claiming at all 
times to be a free man from Georgia. No one suspected him to be a 
slave. Freeman by his counsel obtained a writ of habeas corpus 
from Judge Major of the State Circuit Court, and he was taken out 
of the custody of commissioner Sullivan, and brought before the 
Judge. Jonathan A. Listen, and Thomas D. Walpole appeared for 
Ellington, and John L. Ketehum, Lucien Barbour, and John Coburn 
for Freeman. The Judge decided that he had no jurisdiction over 
the case, and remanded Freeman into the custody of the United States 
Marshall, who committed him to the jail of the county to await the 
decision of commissioner Sullivan, who postponed the hearing to give 
time to the parties to procure testimony, especially upon the important 
point of the identity of Freeman as the slave of Ellington. There 
was no question but that Ellington's negro Sam had escaped some 
years before, and Ellington had sworn that Freeman was his slave Sam. 
Pending the continuance of the cause, Ellington brought to Indiana- 
polis three witnesses from Kentucky, who were admitted into the jail 
by the marshall. Freeman was stripped, a scar found on the left leg 
about an inch and a half in diameter, by which the witnesses identi- 
fied him, and swore positively, that he was the identical negro Sam of 
BIr. Ellington. This looked bad for Freeman, but Ellington himself 
had said that Sam had a large scar on the side of his right leg, run- 
ning down to, and covering the top of the foot, made by a burn at 
Hanging Eock, Kentucky : also, a sear on the back part of his shoul- 
der, made by a bite of another negro at the same place. Freeman, 
upon examination, had no scar on the shoulder, nor upon his right 
leg, and the scar on his left leg was proved to have been made by a 
cut. These facts, with the positive statements of Freeman, satisfied 
both his counsel and the public that the Kentucky witnesses were 
mistaken, to use the mildest term, as to the identity of Freeman as 
Sam, that the real Sam might be found, and after short search in Ohio, 
they found his line of travel, traced him to Canada, and found him 
there. He acknowledged that he was Ellington's Sam, told how he 
escaped, the rout he traveled, and all about his Master Ellington and 



JOHN FREEMAN. 279 

his family. The counsel returned and procured two of Ellington's 
Kentucky neighbors to go to Canada and see Sam. The moment they 
saw him, they identified him as he did them, as his old acquaintances. 
This was the real Sam, the fugitive. He had escaped in the year 1834, 
he had the scars on the right leg and the shoulder, but how could the 
mistake be honestly made ? Sam was a tall, straight negro ; jet black, 
full chest. Freeman was a low, heavy-set man, muddy brown, by no 
means black like Sam, and at least six inches shorter : they were about 
the same age. Conclusive as this proof seemed to be, to leave no stone 
unturned the persevering counsel for Freeman went to Georgia, and 
learned there, that the statements of Freeman, were strictly true ; that 
he had removed from Virginia to Georgia in the year 1831 ; had lived 
in Georgia until the year 1844, when he removed to Indianapolis. 
Lero Pattillo of Georgia, who had been the guardian of Freeman," 
came to Indianapolis. The moment he and Freeman saw each other. 
Freeman burst out crying, and ran to Mr. Pattillo overjoyed. Several 
other gentlemen of Georgia came with Mr. Pattillo, all of whom recog- 
nized Freeman the moment they saw him. Thus stood the case in 
the evening ; next morning the examination before the commissioner 
was to be had. Ellington arrived after dark, learned from his coun- 
sel the hopeless state of the case, locked himself up in his room, and 
in the night left the city and walked to a station on the Madison rail- 
road ; got on the cars, made the best of his way to Kentucky, and has 
not returned since. The commissioner promptly discharged Freeman, 
who still resides at Indianapolis with his fxmily. In the meantime 
Freeman brought a civil action for trespass and false imprisonment 
against Ellington, and the process served while he was at Indianapolis. 
and obtained a judgment upon compromise for two thousand dollars 
and costs, not a dollar of which has been paid, as I learned from one 
of the counsel. This case presents much for reflection ; it shows the 
great caution that should be observed on the part of slave-holders in 
pursuit of fugitives, in making affidavits, and the vast importance of the 
commissioner issuing the writ, giving full time to the parties after 
the arrest to get the proof of identity before a certificate is obtained. 
While it is right and proper, that the Constitution and laws should be 
enforced in such cases, it is highly important that every safeguard 
should be thrown around the free man of color. 



280 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

The distinguislied subject of this sketcli, stands acknowledged 
among the first men of his times. His name, and "public services, 
form an essential part of the history of our country ; indeed, they 
could not be torn from it without greatly mutilating the record. He was 
the only sou of his distinguished Revolutionary sire, who stood by the 
.side of Thomas Jefferson on the memorable occasion, when a great 
nation was born, to astonish the civilized world. It is not my pur- 
pose to speak of the many high oifices that were filled by Mr. Adams, 
nor of the ability with which he filled them, nor is it any part of my 
purpose to speak of his administration. I may be permitted, how- 
ever, to say what is now usually conceded, since the public eye 
sees through national, and not through partisan glasses, that his 
administration was a model one, — pure, patriotic, economical, American. 
John Quincy Adams was small of stature, not over five feet eight 
inches high, well made, good chest, fine features, large head, high, 
retreating forehead, thin hair, bald to his ears, weak, watery eyes, 
eflfected by cold caught on his European tour. I speak of John 
Quincy Adams, after he had left the Presidential Chair, and had been 
returned to the House of llepresentatives from his native district in 
Massachusetts. He was the only Ex-President, that had taken a seat in 
that body, since the organization of our Government. Mr. Monroe, 
after he had retired from the Presidency, held the ofiice of Justice 
of the Peace, and of member of the House of Delegates of Virginia, 
but no other Ex-President has ever appeared in the House of Eepre- 
sentatives, and I much doubt, whether any other could have sustained 
himself in debate in the popular branch of Congress. It was there 
that I knew him best. As a speaker, he was clear, cool, self-possessed, 
strong, a mind of the highest order, his head a diary of facts and 
dates, always prepared, a fine classic scholar, a professor of rhetoric, 
he was an able, prompt debater, and in personal contests which he 
seldom avoided, he was a competitor to be dreaded by the ablest 
debaters in the House. On one occasion, Henry A. Wise had made a 
personal attack on him, using language that Mr. Adams thought 
unbecoming the occasion. After Mr. Wise took his seat, Mr. Adams 
sat quietly writing at his desk without noticing him, until his silence 
became painful to Mr. Wise. Dr. Mallory, the friend of Mr. Wise 
came round to the seat of Mr. Adams and told him that he could get 
the floor to reply to Mr. Wise. Mr. Adams in a loud voice, that 
could be heard over the House, " No sir, the young man has let him- 
self down entirely below reply from me," and continued writing. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 281 

Without attempting to sketch many of the smaller incidents con- 
nected with Mr. Adams, in the House, I come at once to one of the im- 
portant ones which I witnessed. He was known throughout the United 
States, as the avowed friend of the Constitutional right of petition, 
for redress of real or supposed grievances. On the occasion to 
which I allude, he received a petition, praying a dissolution of the 
Union, and introduced it in the House accompanied by a resolution. 
'' Resolved that the prayer of the petitioners ought not to granted." 
Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, one of the ablest debaters in the 
House, with more zeal than discretion, immediately rose and moved 
that Mr. Adams be expelled from the House. This motion created 
great excitement ; bvit Mr. Adams sat writing at his desk cool and 
collected ; the debate took a wide range, and occupied the morning 
hour as the priviledged question for weeks. 

I entered the House one morning during the debate, while Mr. 
Adams was speaking. Lord Morpeth sat by him, with his face turned 
up, closely Wcitching every gesture, and attentively listening to every 
word of Mr. Adams. I had a full view of both at the time, and was 
afterward introduced to Lord Morpeth. In person, he was a fine 
model of a man ; about the common hight ; light complexion, flush, 
carnation cheeks ; blue, cheerful eyes ; fine features ; English dialect ; 
plainly dressed ; manners plain and unostentatious. He remarked to 
me, "Mr. Adams is a remarkable man, a most sarcastic debater." It 
was apparent that Mr. Adams had the best of the contest. His oppo- 
nents keenly felt their position. Mr. Adams had wisely maintained 
the Union, while he admitted the right of petition of the citizen in its 
enlarged sense. Mr. Marshall, without noticing the resolution of 
Mr. Adams, moved to expel him for introducing the petition ; this 
gave Mr. Adams such vantage ground in the debate, that his oppo- 
nents could not resist him. With many others, I always regretted 
that the petition and resolution had not been referred to a select com- 
mittee, with Mr. Adams at the head, that he might have reported on 
the value of the Union. No man in the nation was so well qualified 
to draw the report as Mr. Adams. The result of the matter was, that 
Mr. Adams gave way for a motion to lay the petition, resolution and 
motion on the table ; which was done unanimously, where they still lie. 

While the debate was in full blast, I returned to the Senate cham- 
ber. Mr. Clay asked me what was going on in the House ? I told 
him that Mr. Adams was using up Mr. Marshall, of Kentucky. 
"Ah ! just as I expected. I told the young men to let him alone. 
The truth is, Mr. xYdams is too much for any of them ; the sooner 
they get rid of him and the subject, the better for them." 



282 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Mr. Adams, with all his powers, was fur from being a pleasant 
speaker. He was very interesting, because of his facts, but to my 
ear, he could not be called eloquent. 

Mr. Adams had strong pretensions to being a poet, as well as a 
jurist, philosopher, and statesman ; but I believe he had little if any 
music in him. Indeed, the anecdote he related to Mr. Robert C. 
Winthrop, of Boston, would seem to divorce him from all musical pre- 
tensions. It was at Ghent; the American and British plenipoten- 
tiaries had met to form the treaty of peace between the two countries ; 
the authorities of the place proposed to give a grand musical enter- 
tainment in honor of the occasion. The chief musician was directed 
to call upon the American ministers and get their national song, with 
the air to be played by the band. He was introduced to our ministers 
and the object of his visit stated. The question was, what was the 
national song of the United States, and what the air? Some were 
for "Hail Columbia," and some for "Yankee Doodle." The latter 
prevailed, and was decided by the plenipotentiaries of the United 
States to be the national song. The chief musician. — " Please give me 
the air." Mr. Adams, looking at Mr. Clay, " I can not do it ; I never 
sung or whistled a tune in my life." Mr. Clay, looking at Mr. Bay- 
ard, " Nor I." Mr. Bayard, " Nor I." The other ministers also dis- 
claimed all knowledge of music. Mr. Clay, always quick at expedients, 
"Call John," his colored man. »Tohn came in. "What massa?" 
" John, whistle Yankee Doodle for this gentleman." The musician 
took his seat, with paper and pencil, and, as John whistled, took the 
air, noted the tune for music, and next day " Yankee Doodle," with 
its variations, was played by the band, in splendid harmony, to the 
admiration and delight of the assembled multitude. This establishes 
.forever " Yankee Doodle " as our national song and air. 

Mr. Adams continued to discharge his arduous duties in the House 
of Representatives, with a punctuality and industry worthy of all 
praise. One day he caught his foot in the carpet and fell, breaking 
his arm ; the next morning, at the meeting of the House, he was in 
his seat, with his arm in a sling. He said, " I have made it a rule 
through life, never to be absent from my post, unless it is impossible to 
be there." This venerable patriot was at last stricken with death in 
the Hall of the House, while discharging his duties. He fell and 
expired, surrounded by the Representatives of the nation, as his ton- 
gue whispered, " This is the last of earth," and his immortal spirit 
took its flieht. 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 283 

ADDRESS, 

Delivered at Indianapolis, at the Agricultural Fair, September, 1856. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Members op the Marion County Agricultural Society : 

I had but one object in view, in accepting the kind invitation of 
your Society to deliver the Annual Address on this occasion, and that 
was, to contribute so far as I might, to the practical results essential 
to the prosperity of the Society, and the progress and permanent useful- 
ness of knowledge, when applied to Agricultural, Horticultural, and 
Mechanical pursuits, in the aifairs of life. 

I might entertain you to-day, for the brief space allotted to this 
Address, with fine sayings, classical allusions, and metaphysical dis- 
quisitions upon subjects surrounding and even germain to the main 
object of your Association ; but such an address, however it might 
seem to elevate the author, would fall far short of the object I have 
in view. Let others range the fields of fancy, and cull from the 
gardens of classic literature their flowers of rhetoric, while I direct 
your thoughts to the useful, to the main object of the formation of 
Societies like yours, and to some practical considerations connected 
with the operations in which you are or may be engaged ; and if I 
should not give many extracts from written works to sustain my sug- 
gestions, you will rather attribute what may seem to be a neglect of 
authors, to the impossibility of confining myself within reasonable 
bounds, if I should attempt to analyze, or give even proper views 
from the books and writings of others. I wish to condense my remarks 
into a readable length, as I have long since noticed that, as a general 
rule, the writers of large books, like the authors of long, prosy 
addresses, must expect to be their chief readers. 

We have met at the Capital, on this anniversary of the Agricultural 
Society of the county of Marion, in the year 1856, for the purpose of 
adding our annual contributions to the store of knowledge, and other- 
wise furthering the important objects of our Association. It would 
be time uselessly occupied in this address, for me to attempt to prove, 
at this day, the utility or benefits of Agricultural Societies. The efiiect 
of this congregation of onr citizens, bringing with you the annual 
fruits of your industry and experience, for the inspection of each other, 
and for the improvement, in kind and quality, of the several products, 
will not be fully appreciated until its more matured results shall be 
presented, on like occasions, in after years. Since the commencement 



284 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

of this annual fair, I tave walked over these beautiful grounds, so 
handsomely appropriated to this laudable purpose, both for the County 
and State. I have looked with true delight at the annual products of 
cultivated nature, and of art, that have been brought up and spread 
before us, and I have said to myself, what wonderful progress the 
hands of civilized industry are making? Truly, the late wilderness is 
blossoming as the rose ; but above all, my heart has been filled vfiih 
gratitude, when looking at the cheerful and happy countenances, and 
the entire absence of all appearance of want or distress, of the assem- 
bled citizens of our county ; and when reflecting upon the blessings we 
enjoy, in this fertile, salubrious, and beautiful portion of the great 
Valley of the Mississippi, under the best government on earth, where 
we can worship as our own consciences may dictate, where we are gov- 
erned by laws of our own making, and where labor of both sexes is 
honorable. I can not dismiss this idea without saying, that one of 
the happiest effects of these annual associations, is to bi'ing the people 
from all parts of the county together, and by introducing them to each 
other, strengthen the bonds of friendly neighborhood and county 
society, that should be maintained and cherished by us all. 

It affords, perhaps, the only pleasant opportunity in the year for 
our citizens to meet upon a common platform, and exchange the salu- 
tations of the season, in rational, virtuous, innocent, and useful con- 
versation, unalloyed by the presence of a privileged aristocracy, or any 
other distinctions of society than the true line that should be drawn 
between the virtuous and the vicious. Our Agricultural Fair should 
ever be held as our annual county jubilee, and its members, and all 
others, should zealously contribute to its perpetual prosperity. 

It may not be improper, as a further preliminary remark, to direct 
your thoughts to our beautiful, fertile State and county, to inquire 
what they were? what they are ? and what are their prospects ? And 
here let me be understood, once for all : I mean no invidious com- 
parisons between Marion and other counties. Our State, as a great 
agricultural section of the "West, will compare favorably with any 
other, while her mineral resources are of the first order, and inex- 
haustible. She lies in the trough of the Great Mississippi Valley, 
stretching from the Northern Lakes to the Ohio river on the south, 
and bounded by the great States of Ohio and Illinois, on the east and 
west. She lies directly across the track, for all time, of all the great 
artificial improvements that can ever be made connecting the Eastern 
Atlantic cities with the Pacific Ocean, over the Valley of the Missis- 
sippi. She is highly favored in point of climate, soil, minerals, wood, 
water, rock — in a word, Indiana combines all the elements of a great 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 285 

and growing State, and being blessed with a free Constitution, she 
must yet contain as dense a population as any part of the globe. She 
was born in the year 1816, with some sixty-five thousand inhabitants — 
only about forty years ago. A few counties only were then organized. 
The whole middle, north, and north-west portions of the State were 
an unbroken wilderness, in the possession of the Indians. Well do I 
remember when there were but two families settled west of the White- 
water Valley — one on Flatrock, above where Rushville now stands, 
and the other on Brandywine, near where Greenfield was afterward 
located. When I fii'st visited the ground on which Indianapolis now 
stands, the whole country, east to Whitewater and west to the Wabash, 
was a dense, unbroken forest. There were no public roads, no bridges 
over any of the streams. The traveler had literally to swim his way. 
No cultivated forms, no houses to shelter or feed the weary traveler, 
or his jaded horse. The courts, years afterward, were held in log 
huts, and the juries sat under the shade of the forest trees. I was 
Circuit Prosecuting Attorney at the time of the trials at the falls of 
Fall Creek, where Pendleton now stands. Four of the prisoners were 
convicted, of murdei', and three of them hung for killing Indians. 
The court was held in a double log cabin, the grand jur}^ sat ^^pon a 
log in the woods, and the foreman signed the bills of indictment 
which I had prepared, upon his knee ; there was not a petit juror that 
had shoes on — all wore moccasins, and were belted around the waist, 
and carried side-knives used by the hunter. The products of the 
country consisted of peltries, the wild game killed in the forest by the 
Indian hunters, the fish caught in the interior lakes, rivers and creeks, 
the papaw, wild plum, haws, and small berries gathered by the squaws 
from the woods. The travel was confined to the single horse and his 
rider, the commerce to the pack-saddle, and the navigation to the 
Indian canoe. Many a time and oft have I crossed our swollen 
streams, by day and by night, sometimes swimming my horse, and at 
others paddling the rude bark canoe of the Indian. Such is a mex'e 
sketch of our State when I traversed its wilds, and I am not one of 
its first settlers. 

Such is a brief view of early Indiana, but it is sufiicient for my 
present purpose, my object being merely to direct your thoughts to 
the rise and progress of the State generally, before I come to speak 
of our county of Marion especially. How stands the State to-day, as 
compared with Indiana at the time of her admission into the Union ? 
She then contained the same area of 33,809 square miles. Then, as 
now, she embraced the same minerals, the same fertile soil, and lay in 
the lap of the great Mississippi Valley. Her beautiful rivers and 



286 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

smaller streams then, as now, meandered througli every part of her 
territory. But then the State only contained some 65,000 inhabitants, 
confined to a few counties; now she contains some 1,500,000, spread 
over her ninety-one counties. Marion county was then a part of the 
wilderness ; now she has a population of over 40,000, with taxables 
about 815,000,000, and produces annually over 250,000 bushels of 
wheat, 1,500,000 bushels of corn, 100,000 bushels of oats and barley, 
55,000 bushels of potatoes, 9,000 horses and mules, G5,000 swine, 
20,000 sheep, 19,000 cattle, 5,000 barrels of pork, 825,000 pounds of 
bacon, 18,500 slaughtered animals, $10,500 of poultry, 815,000 of 
orchard products, 818,500 of garden products, 810,472 of home manu- 
factures, 847,852 hay, 89,200 wool, 83,805 maple sugar and other pro- 
ducts in proportion. Then there was not a railroad of any considerable 
length in the Union ; now we have in the United States, more miles 
of railroad than all the world besides. Then the magnetic telegraph 
and its usefulness were unknown. I well remember the first experi- 
ments of Dr. Morse, at Washington city, amid the universal doubts 
of even his ardent friends. Now our thoughts are flying upon the 
"wires with the sjieed of lightning, through every part of the civilized 
world ; and such has already been the concentration of railroads at 
our Capital, that Indianapolis has by common consent, received the 
name of " the Railroad City of the West." The trains of nine rail- 
roads, radiating from the Capitol in full operation, are hourly entering 
and leaving our city, exchanging their freight and more than 4000 
passengers daily, in our splendid Union Passenger Depot, while other 
important lines of railroad are being constructed to our city ; and this 
is only the beginning of the end. Such is the rapid progress of this 
astonishing age. Time is flying with the rapidit}^ of thought — the 
new world seems to be moving with uncommon velocity, and man is 
progressing to his ultimate high destiny, under an impetus without a 
parallel in the history of our race. 

Members op the Agricultural Society. — My main object to- 
day can not be accomplished, without speaking directly to you, and 
through you to our other fellow-citizens of the county of Marion. I 
have already directed your attention to the character of our prosper- 
ous State, and said enough to enable you at your leisure, to fill up the 
outlines I have sketched. I now desire to ask your attention for a 
few minutes, while we look at the scenes around us, at the position we 
occupy as citizens of the county of Marion ; while we compare our 
county as she was when organized, with what she now is ; but more 
especially while we contemplate the position of our farmers and 
mechanics at present, as compared with the early settlers. I can not, 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 287 

in the brief time allowed me for tliis address, do more than sketch 
these comparisons, leaving yon to carry them out by your own reflec- 
tions. Those of you who lived here in early times, many of whom I 
see around me, will appreciate my views. 

I mean not to speak boastfully, but I may say truthfully, that our 
county of Marion in point of soil, growth of timber, purity of water, 
mildness of climate, local jjosition and all that could make her desir- 
able for settlement and cultivation, stood unsurpassed in a state of 
nature. With these truths before us, it is not strange that such induce- 
ments to emigrants, to make our country their permanent homes, 
should, in so few years, have produced the astonishing changes before 
our eyes. I stood, but as yesterday, on the site of Indianapolis, the 
Capital of our State, when there was scarcely a tree missing from the 
dense forest around it. I passed through the wilds of Marion on my 
pony, upon the winding Indian path, when the bear, the deer, and the 
wolf sprang up before me, and wildly bounded into the security of 
their native lairs. I recollect when the commerce of Marion and the 
infant Capital was carried between Cincinnati and young Indianapolis, 
by the semi-monthly sis ox train of my departed friend, John Ilager. 
This was the second stage of commercial operations in Marion ; the 
single horse and the pack-saddle being then employed in carrying the 
mail, the letters and papers having become too bulky to be can-ied in 
the pockets of the mail-boy. The beautiful and fertile lands of 
Marion were then covered with a heavy forest ; the farms that you 
prize so highly now, were then the hiding-places of the Indian and 
the wild animals of the woods. How stands the matter now ? Look 
at Marion as she is ! Cast your eyes to the east of this stand, and see 
the beautiful city of Indianapolis, the Capital of the State, with her 
20,000 inhabitants ! See the .spires of her twenty-seven churches, of 
the different denominations of Christians, shooting up toward the 
clouds ! Look west, east and north at our humane institutions for the 
unfortunate deaf and dumb, blind and insane. See the numerous 
towering station buildings of our railroads ! Look at our colleges and 
graded-school edifices ! See those beautiful buildings erected by the 
different associated benevolent orders ! Observe our numerous first- 
class hotels ! See the solid blocks of splendid wholesale and retail 
stores, filled with the choicest merchandise from every clime ! Observe 
our crowded streets ! Hear the hum of business, and the sound of 
the workmen erecting new edifices, in every part of the city ! Listen 
to the whistle of the locomotives, entering and departing from our 
city, with their heavy freights and thousands of passengers ! Pass 
over the county in ever}^ direction, and see the state of improvement 



288 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

every where, large and beautiful cultivated farms, good liouses and barns, 
fine orcbards, and in every neigliborbood, convenient schools to educate 
the rising generation, who are soon to take our places upon the great 
theater of human action. And here let me say, give your children a 
good English education, such as may be obtained at the common schools, 
neglect them not, lay well thefoundation. Let no false father's, mother's 
or teacher's pride, induce you to force them into the higher branches 
before they can spell well, read well, write well, and understand the 
principles of arithmetic and the English grammar. Avoid the modern 
hot-bed system of education, that attempts to plant the top, instead 
of the root of the tree in the earth, and then your children will be 
prepared to meet the cares and duties of every-day life. . 

My long, eventful life, both as a private citizen and a public man, 
authorizes me to say a word to the young men of the county of Mar- 
ion. Character to you is every thing — remember that your character 
does not grow out of your position, employment, profession, or avoca- 
tion in life ; nor does it attach to you, in this country, from family 
connections, or independent of your habits and conduct, but it is 
formed upon the unerring basis of all the elements that make the 
character of the wise, the virtuous, and the good. If you desire the 
respect of your fellow-citizens— if you wish a character that will aid 
you through life — let one who has tried the depths and shoals of pri- 
vate and public life advise you, as he would his only son, to look well 
to the formation of your character — be honest in all things, be indus- 
trious, be open and candid in yovir intercourse with others — cunning 
and deception may succeed for a time, but they will fail in the end. 
Let every act of your life be marked by strict integrity. Never pro- 
mise what you have not a reasonable probability of performing. 
Touch not the intoxicating bowl— it is attended through life by no- 
thing but ruin — it is not necessary for any purpose — I have tested it 
fully. I am now about sixty-two years of age, and have lived near 
forty years in Indiana. I have been exposed tatlie climate and settle- 
ment of a new country — I have been more subjected to temptations, 
in high and low life, than most men, and yet I have never been intox- 
icated in my life; nor in the last forty years have I drunk a drop of 
spirituous liquor. During the eight years I served in the House of 
Representatives and the Senate of the United States, my habits were 
the same. I have frequently pledged the President, and Foreign min- 
isters, in a glass of water, while the wine was sparkling around me. 
During this long life, I have not been confined to my bed a week, 
altogether, by sickness, and have never had better health in my life 
than at present. I look around me for my cotemporaries who indulged 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 289 

freely in tlie intoxicating cup, and find them, with very few excep- 
tions, in premature graves. Avoid cards, as you would your own de- 
struction ; the gambler, his character and associations, are avoided by 
all good men. Guard well your morals. In early life fix your reli- 
gious principles upon a safe foundation. If I had but three rules to 
lay down for my own son, after a long life of experience and exten- 
jive intercourse with my fellow-men, they would be : 1st. Total ab- 
stinence from intoxicating liciuors. 2d. Never even learn to play cards, 
and if you have learned, abandon the game at once and forever. 3d. 
Never be absent from church, when able to attend. These three 
rules, honestly adhered to, the other elements of a good character will 
naturally follow. 

You have every stimulus to action that could be desired — the soil, 
the climate, the facilities to convey your products to the best markets, 
at cheap rates. If these things be true, what is required of you in this 
age of progress ? When the whole earth is moving forward, when the 
arts and sciences are astonishing the world by their new developments, 
when the agricultural interests are marching forward toward that 
high destiny that awaits them, shall the farmer, the mechanic, the 
artizan of Marion, fold his arms and say, " it is enough ; let me alone ; 
I can manage my own afi"airs in my own way?" 1 answer for you, 
no ! Then let me say to you, that whatever resolves you may take 
with you, in your minds, from this annual fair, let the paramount one 
be, to 

FIX YOUR STANDARD HIGH. 

For let it be remembered, that a large portion of the failures of men, 
in the afi"airs of life, have resulted from fixing the standard too low, 
and being content with mediocrity, or even less. When the mind is 
willing to rest in a subordinate position, in whatever man is engaged, 
it can not stand still ; it must recede, fall back still lower and lower in 
the scale of enterprise, until the man will finally reach the condition 
of the sluggard, who cried — 

"A little more sleep, a little more slumber; 

Wasted half bis days, and his hours without number. 
"I passed by his garden, and saw the wild briar, 

The thorn and the thistlegrew broader and higher; 

The clothes that hang on him are turning to rags, 

And his money still wastes, till he starves or he begs." 

If you are a mechanic, an artizan, a farmer, a stock-raiser, a florist, 

a botanist, a horticulturalist, a professional man, fix your standard 

high. Make yourself thoroughly acquainted with your business, or 

profession, read the practical works of good authors, and work to them, 

19 



290 EARLY I^^DIANA TRIALS. 

aided by your daily experience, with a determination, on your part, 
that none shall excel you in the line of your profession, occupation, 
or business, and you must ultimately succeed. Your character will 
become known and appreciated by a discriminating public; but if 
you are contented to stand on the common platform with others who 
have no ambition to excel, you must expect to live like them from 
hand to mouth, pass through the world unnoticed and unknown, and 
sink to your graves without a sympathizing tear, or even a stone to 
mark your earthly resting-place. 

If you are a farmer, fix your standard high, make yourself acquainted 
with the best works on agriculture, on the character and quality of 
soils, on the best system of fertilizing, on the kinds of grain to bo cul- 
tivated on diiferent soils, on the time for changing the crops and rest- 
ing the grounds, on the kinds of manure and their appropriate uses, 
of the grasses and their adaptation to different soils, on the different 
implements of husbandry and their uses, of the preparation of the 
ground for the seed, of the quantity of seeds, and the kinds to be 
used ; upon the most profitable stock to be raised on the farm, upon 
the best manner of protecting your stock from the weather, the time 
and manner of selecting your seed for the ensuing season ; of choosing 
your breeding stock, of their kinds ; and here let me say, that while 
it is highly important to select from the best breeds of stock, it is 
quite as much so to examine your stock carefully, and take out the 
best for your breeders, from time to time ; by pursuing this course, 
you will soon find yourselves in possession of greatly improved stock, 
at little cost. These remarks apply to the horse, the jack, the jennet, 
the hog, the sheep, and even to domestic fowls. Be not deceived by 
names or pedigree ; look for yourselves. If the animal be a horse, 
look at his color, size, bone, form, eyes, action : if these are right, you 
may risk him. So with the jack, the jennet. If the animal be a hog, 
examine him closely ; if he has the three cardinal points, you may 
take him. He must have length of body to weigh well, a strong bone 
to carry his weight when fat, and stand near the ground to fat at any 
age. And here let me say, that there is one characteristic about the 
hog that should be observed : he will not bear the reduction of his 
feed ; you may keep him as a stock hog, but whenever the process of 
fattening commences, it should be continued, with all he will eat, 
until killing time, whether he is fatted in the corn-field or in the pen. 
If the animal be a sheep, examine him for yourself; look to his size, 
length of body, length and quality of wool, and if these are what you 
desire, look no further, if the price suits. 

So with your cattle, especially your milch cows, so essential to every 



AGEICULTURAL ADDRESS. 291 

farmer. Select the calves of your best milkers to be raised, and 
continue the process from year to year. I have no doubt but that 
much benefit to our farmers and stock-raisers will result from the 
importation of foreign improved stock, of the different breeds ; but 
while I say this, let me warn our farmers against running into 
extravagant and ruinous prices for such animals, but rather select 
the finest of the crosses from year to year, and the result will prove 
itself. I well remember when three Spanish Merino bucks, of the 
short, fine avooI breed, were sold at New York, from ship board, for 
$1,500 each, under a heavy competition. My father, who was a fair 
Pennsylvania farmer, instead of running after the excitement about 
that time, adopted the practice of selecting his best, lengthy, long, 
fine wooled lambs for his stock, and turning over the inferior ones 
to the butchers ; and the result was, that his flock rose in size, and 
quality, and quantity of wool, and mutton, in a few years, so as to 
be required for breeders, at high prices, by the surrounding neighbor- 
hood. Let our firniers try it — it will cost nothing— keeping in mind 
that the expense is no more to keep a good animal than a poor one, 
and much at last depends upon feed and care. It is an axiom, that 
the miller's hog is always of a good breed. 

A word as to the care of the farm. Very much of the value of a 
farm depends upon the care you take of it. And here, again, I would 
say, fix your standard high. Let no other farmer excel you. Make 
yours a pattern farm. See that you have good fences ; it is much 
easier to keep your stock out of your grain fields by good fences, 
before they become breachy, than it is to drive them out as your 
crop is being destroyed, and protect your fields against them afterward. 
Farm no more ground in corn than you can tend well, and put the 
rest in small grain and grass. If you want to provide against drouth, 
plow deep. If you fear a wet season, plow deep. If your corn ground is 
flat and naturally wet, plow and plant in ridges, until you can drain 
it, but be careful not to plow when the ground is too wet. If you 
wish to be considered a neat, pattern farmer, plow straight. The 
beauty of the corn-field is the straight rows, at equal distances, and 
the success of the crop depends upon its cultivation. Plow and 
cultivate thoroughly and timely. Keep the row^s free from weeds and 
grass, for if ever you let the corn be overshadowed, so as to turn the 
stalks yellow, the crop is ruined. And my observation is, that a 
farmer who has not pride or ambition enough to keep good fences, 
clean out his fence rows, trim and sprout his orchard, plow his 
grounds deep, lay off his corn-fields in straight rows, keep his barn 
in repair, his gates and bars in order, glass in his windows, care for 



292 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

his stock in winter, and salt it well in summer, plant shade trees in 
his dooryard, and educate his children, is in great danger of falling 
below the standard of a pattern farmer. 

The labor-saving implements of husbandry, the invention of late 
years, Avith their improvements, have revolutionized the process of 
cultivating the earth, in which three-fourths of the civilized world 
are now engaged, and have enabled the former to dispense with much 
of the manual labor that would be otherwise required. While iu 
England, France and Germany, farming operations have been brought 
to much higher perfection than in this country, still, when we see 
where we now stand, and then look to many parts of the Old World, 
we have no cause to despair of ultimate success. I recently read a 
very interesting work, entitled " Observations in the East," by John 
P. Durbin, D. D. His description of the state of agriculture in the 
valley of the Nile, in Egypt, places us on high grounds in the com- 
parison. He notices the manner of breaking up the ground there, 
which, if done here, would create some amusement among our far- 
mers. The Doctor says : " The plow, which is too rude to be described, 
is commonly drawn by a camel and an ugly buifalo, yoked by a pole 
about nine feet long, the ends of which lie on their necks ; one man 
guides the wooden stick, which seems to scratch the ground, while 
another drives and guides the team." And this in the ancient valley 
of the Nile, at this day. 

I have remarked upon the selection of stock. The same idea 
applies to the grains and seeds for your fields and gardens ; the seed 
corn should be selected in the fields, from the best kinds, adapted to 
the climate, from the most vigorous stalks, taking the largest, early 
ripe ears, with not less than two ears on a stalk, and before planting 
taking off the small grains at the end of the ear. By this process, 
if continued, you will bring your corn crop to a high state of perfec- 
tion. The same remarks apply to the potato, the tomato, the beet, 
the parsnip, the radish, the melon, the pumpkin, the squash, and 
indeed generally to the garden ; and still in a more extended degree 
to the orchard. Let the best fruit, adapted to the difierent seasons 
of the year, of its kind, be selected for your orchards, and reproduced 
by budding or grafting ; it requires no more ground, nor greater 
expense, to have an orchard of the choice, fine, cultivated fruit, than 
it does to have one of the poorest seedlings — this every farmer knows, 
but every farmer does not practice upon his knowledge. It may be 
diflBcult to select the best fruit for our climate, in all cases ; still we 
have some knowledge on this subject, and as it is a matter of opinion, 
I give my preferences without intending to dispute the taste of others. 



AGRICULTUKAL ADDRESS. 293 

Apple Orchard. — 1. Yellow Sweet June ; 2. Bough ; 3. Townsend ; 
4. Kambo ; 5. Golden Russet; 6. Holland Pippin; 7. Yellow Bell- 
flower; 8. Baldwin; 9. Prior Red; 10. Spitzenburgh ; 11. Romanite ; 
12. Smith's Cider; 13. Newton Pippin; 14. Wine Sap; 15. Red 
Winter Pearmain ; IG. Jennetain ; 17. Vandeveer Pippin. An 
orchard that contains these several varieties will amply reward the 
farmer, if the grounds shall be kept loose, and the trees well sprouted 
and trimmed. 

Pears. — The variety of this fruit is not so great as the apple. I 
place the choice kinds in the following order: 1. the Seckel ; 2. the 
Bartlet; 3. the Feaster; 4. the Sugar; 5. the Butter; 6. the Catharine. 
There are other fine varieties, that will do well in this climate, that 
may be selected from printed catalogues. 

Peaches. — The crop of this delicious fruit, owing to our severe 
winters and late frosts, has become very precarious. Still, I hope 
our farmers will not despair, and abandon the cultivation. I would 
suggest that fresh trees be planted each spring ; bud them with the 
choice varieties, so that you may have a progressive orchard to meet 
the fruit seasons, as, perhaps, the only means of keeping up our 
peach orchards. 

Plums. — I fear that the CurcuUo has disposed of our best kinds^ 
and left us to cultivate a small damson ; and when it fails, to look to 
the wild varieties of the red and yellow, of our native thickets. 

Cherries. — Whether it is owing to our climate, or to a want of care 
in the cultivation, that we see so very few fine cherries in our market, 
I am unable to say. The Eastern May Duke, Ox Heart, Red Heart, 
Black Heart, Carnation and other choice varieties, are unknown to 
our markets ; while the Sour Morella engrosses the stalls. Why is 
this ? Let our fruiterers answer, as it is their business to look to it. 

The Papaio. — Can this fine fruit, of our river and creek bottoms be 
cultivated, so as to improve its size and quality, is a question that 
ought to be answered hereafter by others. 

A word as to your beasts of burden ; " muzzle not the ox that tread- 
eth out the corn." Keep your work animals well, and properly pro- 
tected from the winter weather at night, and they will repay you in 
extra services. Such are always ready for the road or the draft. And 
here let me remark, from my experience on my fither's farm, when but 
a youth, that if you expect true draft animals, never overload them. 
The ox or the horse, should never learn that he can not draw any 
thing he is hitched to. The secret of balky animals, lies in their hav- 
ing been at some time, loaded beyond their strength. Treat your work 
animals kindly, and they will feel and repay your care. Many I fear, 



294 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

are too much m the habit of underrating the sagacity of their dumb 
beasts. They are capable, if not of loving and hating like human 
beings, certainly of something of a very kindred character. I owned 
a riding-horse once, that I attached to my person so closely, that he 
would never leave me when we were from home, if he could possibly 
help it ; and on one occasion, the carriage in which my wife and myself 
were riding, broke down before, throwing us upon his heels. I spoke 
to him kindly, calling him by name ; he turned his head, looked 
directly at us, and quietly kept his place until we got out and released 
him — and yet, he was a horse of high mettle. 

May I be excused for referring to a matter that I deem sufficiently 
important to be noticed in this address. I allude to the kind of houses 
to insure health to the family. In our climate, with our luxuriant 
vegetable growth, the earth upon which our houses are necessarily 
built, becomes damp, and emits a miasma, producing our intermittent 
fevers, so distressing to our people. My suggestion is, that whether 
your house be large or small, high or low, of one or more stories, 
built of brick, frame or logs, raise the basement at least four feet from 
the ground ; and give a free, open circulation of air beneath, by windows, 
to be closed in cold weather. While such houses may not prove an infal- 
lible remedy against the climate, and causes referred to, I am satisfied 
that they will alleviate the present distress in the fall season of the year. 

I should do injustice to the object of my address, were I to omit a 
word to the women, who are taking so much interest in the success of 
this association, and who form the life of our families, and give char- 
acter to the domestic household. Much, very much of the success of 
the farmer, depends upon the domestic qualities of his wife, to cheer 
him on through life, and make his home the center of his and her 
happiness. This is especially true in a country like ours, where the 
joint labor and care of the sexes seem to be required, to insure suc- 
cess and happiness to the family circle. When a stranger enters the 
dwelling of our farmers, his eye at once embraces the order of the 
room ; he sees whether it looks clean, and the furniture in its proper 
place and well dusted ; and should he be invited to a meal with the 
family, as of course he will be if it is meal-time, although he may not 
expect any thing extra, he will look for such table comforts as the 
farm and the garden may yield, without extra cost, to be served up in 
a plain, neat and clean manner. He has a right to expect good, sweet, 
well-worked butter, and milk, the safely cared for and kept fruits of 
the garden and the orchard, with the more substantial products of the 
barn-yard and the fields. No class of our citizens can live so well, at 
so little expense, as the Indiana farmer ; and none can be so entirely 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 295 

independent of supplies from otliers, for the table. I do not wish to 
be understood that the mere fact that the farmer's wife is provided 
with milch cows, is sufficient to expect at her hands, good, sweet, well 
worked butter, such as commands the highest price in market. She 
must be provided also with sufficient help ; with a good milk-house, 
where the milk and cream can be kept cool, and where solid butte 
and good cheese can be made. I am satisfied that much of the infe 
rior butter and cheese that reach our markets, is owing to the fact that 
a proper milk-house has not been provided. There is no sufficient 
excuse for not having a good milk-house at the residence of each far- 
mer. Every family must have cool drinking-water ; if they have a 
natural spring, there is the seat of the milk-house ; if a well is used, 
supply the milk troughs from the pump, but be sure to have a good cold 
place to keep your milk and butter, so as to keep them cool and sweet. 

The Garden. — Among our farmers, where horticulture is not much 
looked to, and where the labors of the field are exclusively in the 
charge of the men, the garden is usually attached to the house affiiirs 
and left to the women. I am not speaking of those large gardens 
that are cultivated near our large cities, by men, to supply the market; 
would that we had many more of them around Indianapolis. I refer 
to the ordinary farmer's garden. In Europe, the splendid gardens are 
in charge of salaried officers, well versed in scientific horticulture; 
indeed, trained from youth to the science, as a profession. The chief 
gardener of one of these splendid resorts for the grandees of the land 
receives a much higher salary than our Governor, and has under him 
a large corps of inferior officers and laborers. The whole vegetable 
and floral kingdom, in all their varieties, from every part of the earth, 
are spread before the eye in all their luxuriant perfection. We may 
have such gardens in this country when our citizens shall become as 
wealthy as the millionaires of Europe. This we shall not see in our day. 

The object of our farmers should be to make the garden tributary 
to the family comforts in the first place, and profitable as to the sur- 
plus. I would not introduce into the gardens of our farmers the green- 
house, bvit let it find its appropriate location near our large cities, to 
furnish to the votaries of Flora's kingdom the tender, beautiful and 
sweet-scented flowers, shrubs and roses. But the farmer's garden may 
contain the hardy rose, the peony, the dahlia, the pink, the tulip, the 
snow-ball and the lilac for the eye ; currant, pie-plant, tomato, cucum- 
ber, beet, parsnip, ocre, pea, bean, lettuce, radish, asparagus, egg-plant, 
early cabbage, parsley, horse radish, carrot, celery and onion for the 
table; and I would have it large enough to add a good Isabella and 
Catawba grape bower, a strawberry bed, of the large kind, a patch of 



296 EAELY INDIAXA TRIALS, 

the mountain sweet watermelon, and fine nutmegs and cantelopes, with 
rows of the best bearing raspberries on the sides, and a good t3ee-stand 
to furnish honey for the family. The garden should be well manured ; 
there is no danger of making it too rich. I prefer putting on the 
manure in the fall, and letting it lie till spring, by which time it can 
be raked off, and the garden made without incumbrance. 

I do not wish to be understood as advocating any extraordinary or 
lavish expenditures, either upon the farm or garden. I only contend 
for what is within the power of our farmers to perform, by using indus- 
try and economy. I insist that our farmers, being so bountifully 
supplied with the elements of comfort, shall, by their industry, enjoy 
the blessings providence bestowed upon them. I am the advocate of 
strict economy in every depai'tment of life. The farmer and the me- 
chanic should be patterns of economy, as they are of industry. They 
get their means by the sweat of the brow, and they should learn how 
to use and take care of their money when obtained. The secret of 
wealth is not in the knowledge of the way to get money, but how to 
keep it when obtained. The thrifty farmer or mechanic, will avoid 
going in debt beyond his probable means, never relying upon next 
year's crop or labor to extricate him from debt. Next year may never 
come to him, or it may come, not with healing or prosperity, but with 
drouth, blight, and disappointment in its wings. Avoid the tempta- 
tion of buying more land than you can pay for ; remember that the 
farmer's thrift does not depend so much upon the size as upon the 
manner of the cultivation of the farm. There was much force in the 
remark of the farmer, that he intended to make a great addition to his 
farm, by making it smaller and taking better care of it. 

Woods and Shade Trees. — There is nothing that strikes the in- 
telligent traveler, and especially those from the South, with more sur- 
prise, when passing through our beautiful timbered country, than to 
see the indiscriminate and wanton destruction of our lovely forest 
trees. The contrast between the North and South in this respect, is 
too marked to escape observation. In the South, the buildings of the 
farmers are uniformly placed in the midst of a grove of native forest 
trees, giving shade, health, and beauty to the mansion, the moment it 
becomes the family residence ; while in the North, our towering for- 
est trees are cut down in hot haste, to make way for the farm-house, 
and their place supplied with little switches, that may, or may not, as 
they happen to live or die, in the course of the next generation, come 
about as near the native trees that have been destroyed in beauty, 
grandeur and shade, as the sunflower does to the great luminary from 
which it takes its name. 



i t 



AGRICULTURAL ADDRESS. 297 

It is too late for our farmers to correct this great error, but it is not 
too late for every farmer to supply the best substitute be can for tbe 
forest trees he has destroyed, so as to shield his dwelling from the 
scorching meridian sun, so oppressive in our hot summers. 

The same train of thought applies to the destruction of our timber 
rees at the present day. The marked distinction between a timbered 
nd a prairie country is. that the former is prepared for the second 
generation by the labor of the first, while the latter may be used and 
cultivated by the first occupant, to advantage. Marion county is just 
passing the first stage of improvement; the time was when it was 
necessary to clear ofl' the woods, and convert the land into cultivated 
fields. This has been done in most cases to a sufficient extent, and it 
now behooves our farmers to preserve their woodlands from further 
destruction. This can be done by fencing, clearing out the under- 
growth, and sowing in blue-grass, making the woods ornamental and 
profitable, and securing to our farmers the enjoyment of the superior 
advantages of a cultivated timbered country over a widespread prairie 
region, like that which stretches west of our State to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 

Remember, that this is a government of the people, through the 
Dallot-box, and consequently that it is the duty of every voter to 
exercise his elective franchise. The Constitution of the United States, 
and those of the several States, are but as dead charts for our guid- 
ance, without the impelling power of the ballot-box. Our admirable 
form of government, based upon the will of the majority, supposes 
that each voter will take part in its administration. Never fail to cast 
your vote for the men of your choice, and never forget that the suc- 
cess of our great experiment of self-government, and the perpetuity 
of our glorious Union, may depend upon the manner of the exercise 
of the elective franchise. 

May I say, in closing, that after looking at the condition of man in 
all parts of the world, I am well satisfied that the citizens of Indiana, 
and especially the farming community, are in the enjoyment of as 
much real prosperity and happiness as has ever fallen to the lot of our 
race upon the earth, and that we see to day but the beginnino-, if we 
prove true to ourselves. 

May each succeeding anniversary, as time rolls on, bring with it new 
evidences of the virtue, intelligence and industry of our citizens; of 
the growth, usefulness and prosperity of this Society, and of the on- 
ward march of our beloved State and country to their destined great- 
ness, under the protection of our free institutions and the kind regard 
of an overrulino; Providence. 



298 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



THE OTHER SIDE OF "FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE." 

The pamphlet entitled " The Other Side of ' Facts for the 
People,' " by Hon. 0. H. Smith, was published and widely circulated 
in the midst of the political campaign of 1843, and may still be read 
with some interest. It is therefore republished here : 

A pamphlet, recently published and widely circulated in this State, 
evidently intended as a political text-boot--' in relation to the tariff 
policy of the United States, has rendered it due to the people of this 
State that the other side of that important question should be fairly 
and candidly presented to their consideration. That publication, by 
the leaders of the modern Democratic party, is not complained of. We 
are gratified to see our political opponents come out in the full blaze 
of day with their party doctrines, that the people may understand 
them. The principles and policy now openly avowed, have been 
charged upon them by us for years, and the charge has been as often 
denied. This is the first time, it is believed, in the history of Indi- 
ana, that a political party has raised aloft, and flung to the breeze a 
flag inscribed with the Free Trade doctrines preached by Great Brit- 
ain and South Carolina. It is, therefore, due to the leaders of the 
party that avow the policy, as well as to the people, that the subject 
should be fairly presented on both sides. The pamphlet referred to 
having presented one side of this question, with some other matters, 
we proceed to give some thoughts and facts on the other side, for the 
consideration and reflection of the people. It is not proposed to fol- 
low precisely the order adopted by the writer of the pamphlet : we 
intend, however, to cover, substantially, the ground occupied by him ; 
to state his propositions fairly, and to give our views upon them can- 
didly. We have no other motive than to state the true issue between 
the parties, and to show upon which side of the line the American 
policy lies. 

" What is a Tariff? " 

This question is put and answered in the pamphlet, to suit the 
writer, and the use he makes of his definition in the argument. We 
answer, with all financial writers on the subject, that a tariff is a rate 
of duty established on imports by law. That duty may be higher o 
lower ; levied for revenue, or for the protection of American industry 
or for both united. It may be levied upon a horizontal ad valorert 
scale, applying the same rate of duty to all imported articles indis- 

* Written by James Whitcomb, Esq., and read by him after his nomination as 
their candidate for Governor, before the " Democratic " Convention, held at 
Indianapolis, in January, 1843. 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 299 

criminately ; or it may be levied upon principles of discrimination 
between different articles, as to the duty imposed, exempting some 
altogether from duty ; or it may be what is called retaliatory, or coun- 
teracting foreign restrictions, even to the point of prohibition. It is 
understood that the writer of the pamphlet, with the rest of the free- 
trade school of politicians, deny and repudiate the powers maintained 
by us, derived from the Constitution, and indicated in the definition 
we have just given, and contend, First, That there is no Constitutional 
power to pass any tariff-law that shall include the protection of Amer- 
ican industry, above the point absolutely necessary for revenue, or, in 
the language of one of their most distinguished men, " That if we did 
not need money for the support of Government, we should have no 
tariff, and whenever the necessity ceases the tariff should cease." 

Secondly, That it would be inexpedient to exercise the power, if we 
possess it, although a tariff for revenue might fall below the point of 
protection ; and of consequence, 

Thirdly, That the free-trade doctrines, preached but never practiced 
by Great Britain and South Carolina, present the true policy of the 
United States. 

The Whigs, with the old Republican party, maintain the Constitu- 
tionality and expediency of protecting American industry by tariff- 
laws, even above the revenue point, if it should be necessary to go 
above that point ; and they repudiate the British free-trade doctrines, 
as being a mere delusion, and wholly impracticable. 

Have we the Constitutional power to enact a protective tariff, above 
the revenue point, if necessary ? What is understood by protection ? 
It is the right of self-defense possessed by individuals in a state of 
nature, and carried with them into society, modified only by the laws 
that are thrown around them by the sovereign power. It is a right, 
in a national point of view, of defending the flag, the honor, the citi- 
zens, the property, and the industry of the nation, against the policy 
and laws of other nations, as well as against force without law. The 
power to pass laws for the government of a nation is of high preroga- 
tive, let the laws emanate from what source of power they may. The 
power to levy imposts is incident to all governments possessing sover- 
eignty, and without which power no government could long prosper. 
As it is in the power of self-defense, all independent nations maintain 
and exercise it. Great Britain exercised it for herself and her colo- 
nies, and the States that formed the Confederacy, after they threw off 
their allegiance to the mother country, exercised it in severalty. But 
when the Federal Constitution was formed, the States gave up the 
power to the General Government, and it was inserted in express 



300 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

laneuage in the Constitution of the United States. No one entertained 
a doubt but that the right to exercise this power in the most ample 
manner was essential to the prosperity of the people, and the inde- 
pendence of the nation ; hence, in order to give it more efficienc}', and, 
among other objects, to enable the General Government to protect and 
promote the interest of the whole, so far as the exercise of this with 
the other delegations of power would enable her to do, it was expressly 
granted in the Constitution, that the Congress shall have power to lay 
and collect taxes, duties, imposts, etc., etc. 

WHAT SAY THE WITNESSES ? 

We are aware that, in these heated party times, assertion is not 
always taken as proof; hence we prefer to bring before our fellow- 
citizens witnesses who will doubtless be credited by them, in support 
of our position. We shall not be able to present much of the testi- 
mony in the brief space allotted to this side of the question; but what 
we lack in quantity we will endeavor to make iip in quality. We may 
be pardoned for supposing that at least some of our witnesses might 
compare not unfavorably with the leaders of the modern free-trade 
Democracy of Indiana. 

GENERAL WASHINGTON, 

Who presided over the Convention, and who knew, perhaps as well 
as any man who ever lived, the object of forming the new Constitution, 
in his first annual message to Congress, on the 8th of July, 1790, said, 
" The safety and interest of the people require that they should pro- 
mote such manulactures as tend to render them independent of others 
for essentials." The first act of Congress on the subject was approved 
by him, and its preamble declares, " Whereas, it is necessary for the 
support of Government, for the discharge of debts of the United States, 
and the encoiiragenient and protection of manufactures^ that duties be 
laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported, therefore," etc. That 
great man, and benefactor of mankind, continued through his whole 
administration to encourage and protect the industry of his country- 
men, as did the succeeding administration of Mr. Adams. 

MR. JEFFERSON, 

The apostle of the old Republican party, came into power in 1801, 
borne on the current of popular opinion. This whole subject, in all 
its bearings, was fiimiliar to him. Hear him testify. In his annual 
message, in December, 1802, he laid down the following among the 
imperative duties of Government : " To cultivate peace, and maintain 



FACTS FOE THE PEOPLE. 301 

commerce and navigation in all their lawful enterprises, to favor our 
fisheries as nurseries of navigation, and to protect the manufactories 
adapted to our circumstances. '■' '■■' '■' By continuing to make 
these the rule of our action, we shall endear to our countrymen the 
true principles of the Constitution, and promote a union of sentiment 
and of action, equally auspicious to their happiness and safety." At 
another time he wrote : " AVhen a nation imposes high duties on our 
productions, or prohibits them altogether, it may h^ jyrojter for us to do 
the same bi/ theirs, first burdening, or excluding those productions 
which they bring here in competition with our own of the same kind." 
The writer of the pamphlet says : " The names of Washington and 
Jefierson are sometimes claimed as favorable to a high 2'>rotective tariS.^' 
Is it possible ! ! We say, that Mr. Jefferson not only goes to the point 
of protection by a high tariff, but to the still higher point of " exclu- 
sion," or prohibition in self-defense, and by way of counteracting 
foreign restrictions. 

MR. MADISON 

Is a worthy witness ; no one can doubt his testimony on this ques- 
tion, lie was conversant with every step of the Revolution, its cause, 
and the desired object of a change of government. No man, at any 
period of our history, surpassed him in soundness of judgment, or in 
Constitutional learning ; he was the avowed head, in his day, of the 
great Republican party ; the national vessel was steered under his 
direction through the perils of the late war, and his country's flag, in 
all its glory, at the close was seen streaming in the breeze, from the 
mast-head. Hear him. In his first message to Congress, in May, 
1809, he said : " The revision of our commercial laws proper, to adapt 
them to the arrangement which has taken place with Great Britain, 
will doubtless engage the early attention of Congress ; it will be 
worthy at the time of their just and provident care, to make such fur- 
ther alterations in the laws as will more especially protect and foster 
the several branches of manufacture.^' In his message of 1815, he 
says : " There is no subject which can enter with greater force into 
the deliberations of Congress, than a consideration of the means to 
preserve and promote the manufactures \ila.\G\i. have sprung into exist- 
ence, and attained an unparalleled maturity throughout the United 
States, during the period of the European wars; this source of national 
independence and wealth I anxiously recommend^ therefore^ to the prompt 
and constant guardianship of Congress.'" 

MR. MONROE 

Says in his inaugural address, " Our manufactures will likewise 



302 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

require the systematic and fostering care of Government ; possessing, 
as we do, all the law materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, 
we ought not to depend in the degree we have done on the supplies from 
other countries ; while we are thus dependent, the sudden event of 
war unsought and unexpected, can not fail to plunge us in the most seri- 
ous difficulties. It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our 
manufactories should be domestic, and its influence in that case 
instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign lands, would be felt 
advantageously on agricultui'e and every other branch of industry ; 
equally important is it to provide a liovie marlcet for our raw materials, 
as by extending the competition it will enhance the price and protect 
the cultivator against the casualties incident to foreign markets." 
Such was the judgment of that wise and patriotic republican, Mr. 
Monroe. Mr. Adams, his successor, held the same doctrines ; and, it 
is a remarkable fact, that while the different chief magistrates of this 
nation here differed as to other great matters of public policy, with 
regard to the constitutionality and expediency of protecting Ameri- 
can industry, they have held but one language. Some of our readers 
may be ready to ask us whether General Jackson agreed with the 
others in this matter : we know the potency of his name with many, 
and it therefore gives us pleasure to answer the question in the affirma- 
tive. We give you the testimony of 

GENERAL JACKSON. 

In his message of December, 1830, he says : " The power to 
impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several States. 
The right to adjust these duties with a view to encourage domestic 
branches of industry is so completely identified with that power, 
that it is difficult to suppose the existence of the one without the other. 
The States have delegated their whole authority gver imports to the 
General Government without limitation or reservation. * -^ * 
The authority having thus entirely passed from the States, the right 
to exercise it for the purpose of protection does not exist in them, 
and consequently, if it be not possessed by the General Government 
it must be extinct. Our political system would thus present the 
anomaly of a people stripped of the right to foster their oicn industry^ 
and to counteract the most selfish destructive policy which might be adopted 
hy foreign nations. This surely can not be the case. This indispensa- 
ble power thus surrendered by the States, must be within the scope 
of the authority or the subject expressly delegated to Congress." 
We shall for the present dismiss General Jackson as a witness, but 
will bring him to the stand to testify several times before closing this 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 303 

side of the question. To the authorities cited, and to the witnesses 
already introduced, any number of the prominent men of the nation, 
as well as Congress after Congress of the Kepublican school might 
be added. Mr. Clay has been referred to by the writer of the pam- 
phlet as favoring a high tariff, while he has omitted the vote of Mr. 
Van Buren for the high tariff of 1828, called by him the " bill of 
abominations." This does injustice to Mr. Van Buren, unless he has 
changed his opinions, and fallen in M'ith the British free-trade doc- 
trines, to reconcile the South to " the Northern men with Southern 
feelings." Having fully sustained the Constitutionality of a protective 
tariff, we ask the reader to follow us into the question of the expedi- 
ency of the measure. Is it good policy to levy imposts for protection, 
or, in other words, 

SHALL WE PROTECT OUR INDUSTRY ? 

The expediency of affording ample protection to American indus- 
try, is maintained by the Whigs of Indiana, adhering to the old 
Republican doctrines; while the leaders of the modern Democracy of 
Indiana go for revenue alone, whether the industry of the country is 
sufficiently protected by the levy or not, following in the footsteps of 
the British and South Carolina free-trade school of politicians. The 
doctrine avowed and maintained by the Whig party is, that American 
legislation should foster and protect American industry ; while the 
leading modern Democrats contend, that no protection beyond the 
revenue point should be afforded in any event, and, consequently, that 
our manufacturers, mechanics, and artizans, must remain subject to 
the operation of European competition, with its pauper labor under 
foi'eign legislation, against the free labor of America ; putting our 
labor by necessity, in order to compete with the foreign, at the starv- 
ing prices paid to European serfs. The whole policy of protection 
has been assaulted by the pamphlet referred to, with an ingenuity and 
fertility of imagination worthy of a better cause ; yet in it little can 
be found that is new. The British pamphlets and free-trade essays of 
the South give sufficient evidence that the writer does not stand alone 
as the disciple of this anti-American doctrine, but they preach it for 
«s to practice upon, while they keep up ilieir restrictions. We will 
proceed to examine some of the main points in controversy. 

The writer sets out with the assumed position that a tariff is a fax 
on imported articles, and that the consumer pays that tax, and by tak- 
ing this position as granted, he may readily arrive at the conclusion 
to which he wishes to come, that if we should import $100,000,000 of 
foreign articles in a year, at an average duty ad valorem of 30 per 



304 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

cent., of course the people have paid in the single year $30,000,000 
of a tax, beside the profits and charges on the imports ; he is then 
enabled to cry out, is it thus that the Whigs are oppressing you with 
their high tariff? He is then prepared to show at once, that direct 
taxation is the best mode of raising revenue, because least expensive ; 
and, indeed, it may be safely affirmed, that were it not for the unpop- 
ularity of the position, the whole school of these leading free-trade 
modern Democrat^ would come out like McDuffie, Pickens, and Rhett, 
of South Carolina, in favor of direct taxation to raise revenue for the 
General Government ; for if they really believe that the consumer pays 
the duty, the next step follows, of course, and the very moment you 
take from them this sandy foundation, their whole superstructure of 
free-trade falls to the ground. 

DOES THE CONSUMER PAY THE DUTY. 

Unquestionably, says the writer of the pamphlet ; let us see. If 
this were so, why should Great Britain complain of our tariff? If our 
citizens pay the duty, of what importance is it to her how much they 
pay, so that her merchandize is not prohibited? If the consumer pay 
the duty, of what importance is it to us how high the rates are in 
Great Britain, so that our produce is not excluded? Is such the 
understanding of the two nations? If so, would not each look on 
with perfect indifference while the one was levying high duties on her 
subjects, and the other burdening her own citizens with high taxes ? 
On the contrary, is it not the universal understanding of all civilized 
nations, that the restrictions and duties imposed by their tariff laws 
on foreign imports operate in a very great degree against the producer 
of the foreign articles, and not against their own citizens or subjects. 
The position that the consumer pays the whole duty or tax, as a gen- 
eral principle, reverses the whole order of commerce, and strikes at 
the vitals of all imposts ; but it is not true as applied to any other than 
imports of articles that neither come into competition with domestic 
articles, nor with articles admitted at a less rate of duty from abroad ; 
as the article of coffee, which is now duty free when imported in 
American bottoms ; and even that is doubted, as there never has been 
any identity between the price of coffee and the duty ; but suppose 
we should send coffee to Bio or Java, and there should be a duty 
levied upon it, where it would come into competition with the domes- 
tic article, would the consumer pay the duty? or would the producer 
pay it before he could bring his article into market in competition 
with the Java or Bio coffee ? Illustrate the idea further, by taking 
an article from the British tariff which will be found under the free- 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 305 

trade head of this side of facts. Hams from the British colonial posses- 
sions pay in Great Britain three fourths of a cent per pound duty, 
while United States hams pay two and three-fourths cents per pound 
duty. These hams come into competition in the Liverpool or Man- 
chester market. Would the British consumer pay two cents per 
pound more for the American ham of the same quality than he would 
for the other, merely to sustain the theory that the consumer pays 
the duty, or would the American producer pay into the British excheq- 
uer the duty himself, before he could sell his hams and the consumer 
eat it at the price he whould have to pay for the colonial ham, paying 
two cents per pound less duty ? So thinks John Bull, and so it would 
seem. The same idea may be illustrated by a grievance complained 
of by the Indiana boatmen, through a legislative resolve at the last 
session that their boats were taxed wharfiige, and they had to pay a 
license to sell their produce at the towns on the Mississippi. This 
was to be sure a tax, but leading modern Democrats of the free-trade 
school would say that the boatmen had no ground to complain, as the 
whole loss fell at last on the consumer of the produce, and the boat- 
men in fact paid nothing. We ask those engaged on the river if they 
believe this doctrine. Two vessels land at Liverpool at the same time, 
one is loaded with Hindoostan, and the other with Carolina cotton ; 
the India cotton pays only eight cents per cwt. duty, while the Carolina 
cotton pays seventy-two cents by the British tariff; the cotton is of 
the same quality, to be sold in the same market : who pays the sixty- 
four cents per cwt. the difference of duty, the British consumer or the 
American producer ? Would the British manufacturer give sixty-four 
cents per cwt. more for the American article, so as to pay the duty, 
than he could buy the India article for? No, says the leading mod- 
ern Democrat, but the India article would sell for the increased price 
of the duty paid on the American article. If this be true, then the 
duty of seventy-two cents might just as well have been levied indis- 
criminately on both articles, so far as the British consumer was con- 
cerned. 

Such is the fallacy of this doctrine. 

DOES THE DUTY RAISE THE PRICE. 

Certainly it does, says the leading modern Democrat, precisely to 
the extent of the duty imposed. If it were not so, why do the man- 
ufacturers demand high duties? This question is altogether satisfiic- 
tory to the person who puts it and is deemed by him entirely conclu- 
sive of the matter, when in truth it is just as great a fallacy as the 
other, as all our experience has fully demonstrated ; even at this very day 
20 



306 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

and under the liigli tariff of last year, goods were never lower, as every 
one knows. If tlie position of this free-trade school was true, the price 
of goods would immediately have risen upon the passage of the tariff 
of 1842 : then how do you account for the desire of the manufacturers 
to have duties high ? We answer, that they may be protected in a 
fair domestic, as well as foreign competition ; without being subjected 
with their limited means, to be overpowered by the co-ncentration of 
the capital and the pauper labor of Europe to crush them, that those 
monopolists may have the exclusive markets of America for their own 
goods. The moment they can destroy our manufactures the field is 
open, hence they can afford to make a temporary sacrifice to reap the 
reward in the end. Hear Lord Brougham on that very point, and 
see how precisely he sustains these views. The imports to this 
country of 1815 amounted to ^113,000,000, while the exports were 
but S52,000,000. The embargo and the war had proved to be nur- 
series for our domestic manufactures, and they were fast rising to the 
point of supplying the demand at cheap rates. Great Britain saw 
this, and at once applied the power she possessed through her vast 
capital and cheap labor to crush the American manufactures ; hence 
the excessive exports from that country to this in 1815. These exports 
were made, beyond a question, at a great sacrifice on the part of the 
British manufactui'er, but their object was to destroy our manufactures 
at a blow, and not to make profit on their goods. Lord Brougham in 
his speech in Parliament let out the secret. He says, " The peace of 
America has produced somewhat of a similar effect, though I am very 
far from placing the vast exports which it occasioned with those of the 
European market the year before ; both because ultimately the Ameri- 
cans will pay, which the exhausted state of the continent renders very 
unlikely and because it was well icorth xch'dc to incur a loss upon the 
first exhortations in order hy the glut to STIFLE IN THE CRADLE those ris- 
ing Manufacturers in the United States.'^ It is one object of the pro- 
tective laws to prevent this. The American manufacturer requires 
only to be protected in a healthy and uniform competition with others. 
The tariff for protection gives this, while the external and internal 
competition bring down the manufactured article to the lowest price 
for which it can be afforded ; the supply at all times being greater than 
the necessary demand of any given article, the manufacturer as well 
as the merchant or trader, being in direct competition with other man- 
ufacturers and traders at home and abroad, it is impossible that any 
article can remain a day above its lowest minimum. But Manufac- 
turers are 



FACTS FOE THE PEOPLE. 307 



MONOPOLISTS, 

Say our leading, Democratic, free-trade rueu, and they as Democrats, 
are opposed to all monopolies. If this were so. it were indeed a gen- 
erous objection ; but can there be a monopoly in any trade or busi- 
ness, whether it be a cotton or woollen manufactory, a mechanic's 
establishment, a mercantile concern, or a house of public entertain- 
ment, so long as these employments are left open alike to the compe- 
tition, capital, and industry of all ? Will not capital find its level in 
its investment, and is it pretended that any particular business can 
enjoy an excess of profit in a country like this, open to free competi- 
tion? If one employment is more profitable than another, others 
will immediately resort to it. If the Washington Hall is supposed to 
be making too much money as a house of entertainment, there arises 
at the next square the Palmer House to divide it. If a cotton fac- 
tory at Richmond is supposed to be doing well, Mr. West establishes 
an extensive cotton factory at Indianapolis to share the market and 
divide the profits. Let us suppose that these manufactures are, as 
the leading modern free-trade Democrats contend, odious monopolies, 
will it be contended that the British manufactures are less so ? Most 
certainly not ; but, on the contrary, if a large amount of capital con- 
centrated at a given point, and employed in a single manufactory, 
constitutes a monopoly, then the British manufactories as far surpass 
ours, as the amount of their investments exceed ours. The question 
then arises, seeing that we have to sustain manufacturing monopolies 
at last, which shall we maintain and support, the American monopoly 
that purchases our corn, beef, pork, flour, and other agricultural pro- 
ducis, to support the labor of our own citizens, while they manufac- 
ture our cotton, wool, flax, hemp, and other materials that enter into 
the difierent articles in domestic use, or the British monopoly, sus- 
tained by British labor, British raw materials, and British produce, 
to be paid for either by American gold or silver or American produce, 
after deducting a heavy duty to be paid by the American producers ? 
We ask a candid answer. But it is said that the British manufactured 
:: nicies may be bought cheaper than the same article can be made for 
here ; and hence it is argued that the tariff" should be reduced. We 
have already stated how this matter stands, but let us illustrate it here 
again : 

Whether an article is cheap or dear depends upon circumstances ; 
the price may be low, and yet the medium of payment render it dear. 
At the present time, a farmer can afford to pay a higher nominal price 
for any article, in the produce of the farm, than he could get the same 



308 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

article for in money ; the one lie lias to spare, and the other he has 
not. A farmer and a hatter join lands, the farmer needs hats for his 
use, and the hatter needs corn, beef, and pork for his family ; it suits 
these persons to exchange these articles. Now it is not very material 
what price either puts on his articles — it is hut an exchange at last ; 
but suppose at the moment that these industrious men wei-e making 
the exchange, a pedlar should drive up with a load of English hats, 
and offer to sell one to the firmer for fifty cents less than the hatter 
asked for his, but required cash, instead of produce, in payment ; would 
the farmer, by taking the cash from his drawer and paying for his hat, 
while his produce lay upon his hands without a market, get the article 
cheaper than if he had bought it from his neighbor? But suppose 
he had in fact bought the hat for fifty cents less than his neighbor 
asked, and was able to sell his produce, so as to replace the cash he 
had paid out for the hat, how then would the account stand next 
year? The hatter must quit his business because his customers could 
buy cheaper hats ; of course, he must turn farmer. The amount of 
produce would be doubled, and so would the demand for hats. The 
pedlar arrives again with his British hats; he now has two families to 
supply instead of one ; his competitor has been driven from his busi- 
ness to farming, by the cheap hats, and he now puts not only the 
other half dollar on the price of his hats, but adds fifty per cent., so 
that in the two years the farmer has paid a higher nominal price for 
hats than if he had bought them from his neighbor, and the price of 
his produce has been diminished by the increased quantity raised by 
two farmers instead of one. 

Our limits will not permit us to give the many cases that might be 
put to sustain our position. We leave the reader to supply the defi- 
ciency, and proceed to inquire whether a protective tariff gives to the 
farmer, for his agricultural products, 

A HOME MARKET. 

This is an important question, but it is not a new one ; it has for 
many years engaged the time and talents of the best men and ablest 
statesmen of every civilized nation on earth ; we have the experience 
of ages, and the enlightened views of the statesmen of most countries, 
to aid us in coming to a just conclusion. The writer of the pamphlet, 
to which this side refers, treats the idea as a fiillacy. He says : " Those 
who contend that it will, say that there are too many tilling the earth, 
and that we must liire some of them to manufacture, by promising to 
give them more for the articles than we should have to give to others." 
For this statement we have the word of the writer of the address. 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 309 

We have not seen the assertion coming from any friend of a protec- 
tive tariff; it is the hmguage of the anti-tariff, free-trade, British 
school, utterly denied by the friends of protection. As we prefer to 
give the grounds of the belief upon which we maintain the affirmative 
of the position in the least questionable shape, we will introduce to 
the reader a few witnesses upon this point, and then present some brief 
views of our own. We have already presented extracts from Mr. Jef- 
ferson, fully sustaining our position, we add the following, written by 
him in reply to Mr. Austin, in 1816, after the late war. " You tell 
me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our dependence on 
England for manufactures ! there was a time when I could have been 
so quoted with candor. * ^ * We must now place the manufac- 
turer hy the side of the agriculturalist^ Why so, Mr. Jefferson? 
The answer is obvious ; that they may be a mutual benefit to each 
other ; the one furnishing the agricultural products, and the other the 
manufactured articles in exchange. 

MR. CALHOUN, 

In 1816, was the champion of a protective tariff, and one of his 
strong grounds was, that it created a home market for agricultural 
products. He said : " When our manufactures are grown to a certain 
perfection, as they soon will under the fostering care of Government, 
we will no longer experience those evils. The farraer toill finda ready 
market for his surplus produce, and what is of almost equal consequence, 
a certain and cheap supply of all his wants." 

MR. GALLATIN, 

The practical statesman and distinguish financier, long at the head 
of the Treasury Department, may be introduced to the reader upon 
this question with advantage. It was in 1810 the extract was written, 
and the reader will of course make the allowance for the increase 
since, but he will find the position fully sustained. Mr. Gallatin, in 
his able report to Congress, urging the protection of our manufactures, 
estimated the annual product of American manufectures to exceed 
^120,000,000, and that the raio materials tisrxl, and, the provisions and 
other articles, the produce of the United States consumed hy the manu- 
facturers, created a, market at home for our agricultural productions, 
not much inferior to that ■which arose from the whole foreign demand. 

MR. DALLAS, 

Secretary of the Treasury, who was also one of the Fathers of the 
Republican party, in his very able report in 1816, says : " The agri- 



310 EAELY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

cultiiralist wJwse jifoduce and whose flocks depend for their value upon 
the fluctuations of a foreign market, will have no occasion eventually 
to regret the opportunity of a ready sale for his wool or his cotton, in 
his own neighborhood, and it will soon be understood that the success 
of Amei'ican manufacturers, which tends to diminish the profits, often 
the excessive profits, of the importer, does not necessarily add to the 
'price of the article in the hands of the consumer ^ 

MR. MADISON, 

In his annual message in 1815, urges the protective policy in strong 
language. '' It will be an additional recommendation for particular 
manfactures, when the materials for them are extensively drawn from 
our ayricidture, and consequently impart and insure to that great fund 
of national prosperity and independence, an encouragement which can 
not fail to he reivarded.^^ 

We might fill a volume with extracts from the messages of our 
Presidents, from the Father of his Country down, from the reports of 
the Secretaries of the Treasury, and the speeches of our distinguished 
statesmen of all parties, sustaining fully our position; but we forbear 
to press the evidence further, except to give one more extract from 
a document that is too important to be omitted. We call the atten- 
tion of the original Jackson men to it; we ask them to compare it 
with the pamphlet written by one who professed to be his follower, 
even in the proclamation against the nullifiers, but who now joins 
hands with these same nullifiers in opposition to the doctrines on this 
subject maintained by 

GENERAL JACKSON. 

In his letter to Dr. Coleman, dated on the 26th of April, 1824, 
he speaks on this subject the language of an American — the language of 
truth and sound wisdom. He says : " I ask what is the real situation 
of the agriculturalist? Where has the American farmer a market 
for his surplus i^rodiicef Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign 
nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove when there is no 
market at home or abroad, that there is too much labor employed in 
agriculture? Common sense at once points out the remedy. Take from 
agriculture in the United States, 600,000 men, women and children ; 
and you will at once give a marlcet for more hread-stnffs than all 
Europe now furnishes us. In short, sir ; we have been too long subject 
to the policy of British merchants ; it is time ice should become a little 
more Americanized ; and instead o^ feeding the paupers and laborers 
of England^ feed our own, or else in a short time (by continuing our 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 311 

present policy), loe shall he rendered paupers ourselves." In the letter 
of Gen. Jackson to Gov. E.ay in 1828, he re-affirmed and adopted with 
approbation this letter and its doctrines. And yet, to all this the new 
allies of the Jackson party turn up their noses and sneeringly remark 
that those who contend that a protective tariff, will create a home mar- 
ket for our produce, say " that there are too many engaged in tilling 
the earth, and that we must hire some of them to manufacture by 
promising to give them more for their articles than we should have to 
give others." With what grace does the writer of the pamphlet cast 
this stigma on the motives and policy of Gen. Jackson, we leave the 
people to say. 

NUMBER OF MANUFACTURES. 

The writer of the address says : " The census of 1840 shows, that 
there were engaged in trade and manufactures in the United States, 
including every description of mechanics, white and black, slave and 
free, only 791,749 ; while the number of the tillers of the soil was 
3,719,951." From this he argues, that the home market is inconsid- 
erable in comparison with the agricultural products, and therefore not 
worth preserving or protecting. Let us see how this matter stands. 
He must concede that the 791,749 are supported upon American pro- 
duce, and are engaged in the manufacture of the American raw 
material ; suppose we transplant them to Europe and buy their manu- 
factured articles ; whose produce would they then consume — whose 
raw materials would they then operate upon ? Not ours, but European, 
as restrictions are thrown around the introduction of our articles, and 
in that event, we should lose to the farming interest, the market for 
all the raw materials, and all the produce that these 791,749 persons 
would consume ; or if we fed them and furnished the raw materials, it 
would be under their tariff. 

But this is not all, you can not transplant the men, women and 
children, you can only drive them from their employment to agricul- 
tural pursuits, and then after having lost the market for the produce 
and raw materials consumed by the 791,749 persons, you add that 
number to 3,719,951 now engaged in agriculture ; making the agricul- 
turalists 4,511,700, and increasing the agricultural products and affect- 
ing the price in the same proportion. But even this is not all ; the 
moment you have driven your own tradesmen and manufacturers from 
their employment, foreigners left without competition, here, would 
make you pay their own price for their articles, and exact what they 
please in payment. Let us make an estimate of this: for round num- 
bers, says 800,000 manufacturers to the agricultural interest of the 
United States ; at a very low calculation they must consume each of 



312 EARLY INDIATs^A TRIALS. 

agricultural products at least the value of fifty dollars per annum : this 
amounts to 640,000,000 

House rent and fuel, 12,000,000 



852,000,000 
Making $52,000,000 annually in these items, without looking to the 
more important and costly ones of the raw materials, wages of labor 
and other domestic articles which enter into the price of the manu- 
factured articles ; these we leave for the reader to estimate. These are 
some of the gains to the agricultural interest, by having the seat of 
the manufactures in this country, instead of England, where our lead- 
ing free-trade modern Democrats desire to transplant them, or are wil- 
ling to see them transplanted by the operation of their policy of 

FREE TRADE. 

This is certainly in sound, a most fascinating doctrine — free-trade — 
who could oppose it ? say our opponents. It only means to sell where 
we can sell highest, and buy where we can buy cheapest, say its advo- 
cates. Such is their definition of free-trade. A British lord recently 
gave another definition that suited him better ; it was, freedom of bar- 
ter and sale of British goods in the ports of other nations, and high 
duties and restrictions in British ports of the produce of these nations. 
We would give it still another definition as being more applicable to 
the actual state of the case ; it is the surrender by the United States 
of the right to other nations, to control the industry of this by their 
legislation ; for if we omit to pass protective laws, we may preach 
free-trade as much as we please, and it will avail us nothing ; the pro- 
duets of other nations will press down upon us, until our labor will 
be brought to three-pence a day, and our produce to prices ruinous to 
the farmer, while not a port of any other country will be relaxed in 
the duties and restrictions imposed upon our produce. One error of 
this free-trade school consists in this : that they forget that we have 
no power to legislate for other countries. As well might a farmer 
declare in favor of free-grazing of cattle, and open his gates and take 
away his fences from his pasture-fields, while all his neighbors secured 
and protected their pastures by good fences; we need not tell our far- 
mers how they would come out with such a project in the end. The 
principle is the same — that of self-protection, and so long as all the 
civilized nations of the earth keep up their restrictions and duties, 
just so long we must meet them on the same platform, or sink under 
the weight of their legislation. Upon this part of our inquiry, we 
might quote all the distinguished statesmen of the nation, who have 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 



313 



taken part in our political affairs. We deem it, however, unnecessary 
to do so. 

There is one distinguished American who has not been heretofore 
prominently before the jDCople, whose opinions are entitled to much 
weight ; it is, therefore, with pleasure that we give an extract from a 
letter, written by the hero of Lundy's Lane, 

GENERAL SCOTT. 

Recently, to a committee, the General says : " from a familiarity 
with the principal writers on political economy, I was early much 
smitten with the doctrines of free-trade ; but between the years 1824 
and 1828, being stimulated by the discussions of the period to recon- 
sider first impressions, I soon became thoroughly persuaded that 
that theory of wealtb, however beautiful, would impoverish this coun- 
try in its free-trade with the many, whose rival products are shielded 
by duties generally high, and in many cases prohibitory ; until, there- 
fore, the other great commercial nations can be forced to practice upon, 
as well as to propagate in speeches and writings, these liberal doc- 
trines, I should he in favor of countervailing and retaliatory duties at 
home." The force and justice of the views of Gen. Scott will appear 
most manifest from an examination of the following extract from the 

BRITISH TARIFF. 



ARTICLES. 



Bacon, per cwt, 

Beef salted, not beinj 

beef, per cwt 

Tongues, per cwt 

Butter, per cwt 

Cheese, per cwt 

Eggs, per 120 



corned 



Hams of all kinds, per cwt 

Lard, per cwt 

Pork salted, not ham, per cwt.. 

Cranberries, per gallon 

Pot or pearl ashes 



Oil-seed cakes, per ton. 

Linseed, per cwt 

Rapeseed, per cwt 

Beeswax, per cwt 

Stearine candles 

Tallow, per cwt 

Castor oil 

Cotton 



or OR FROM BRITISH 
POSSESSIONS. 



D. 0. 

6 about ^ 



M. 

per it), 



4 per tb. 
2 per tb. 



about 

6 about 

about 1 per lb. 

6 about i- per lb. 

2J n't quite 1 for 2 

dozen. 

6 nearly | per fb. 

6 not 1 per lb. 

about 4 per tb. 



Free. 



2 or 44 0. 



3 2 nearly -| per tb. 
1 3 about l' per lb. 
8 cents per cwt 



FOREIGN PRODUCE. 



D. C. 

about 2 



per tb. 



about li per lb. 
about 2 per tb. 
nearly 4 per tb. 
6 a little over 2 cts. 
per lb. 



10 about 
14 about 

2 about 
14 about 



2 1 perdoz. 

2 1 per tb. 
I per lb. 

2 I per R. 
1 about 15 pr. bus. 
6 when for homo 
consumption. 
10 or 22 cents. 
1 or 1;} cents. 
1 or 1^- cents. 
or 22 cents. 
2,^ or about 4 cts. 
8 or about 5^ cts. 



72 cents per cwt. 



314 EAELY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

We wisli our readers to examine this table, taken from tbe able 
report of Mr. Ellsworth, commissioner of patents. Although it does 
not contain many articles of American export, still it gives a fair 
average of British duties on American products. Such is the practice 
of the free-trade school of Great Britain, and yet the leaders of the 
modern Democratic party in Indiana would meet these restrictions 
and discriminations with free trade in our ports, unless for revenue ; 
and even then, as "we have shown, their doctrine leads to direct taxes 
to raise it. That there should be found advocates for this doctrine, 
in Indiana, is passing strange ; from the Southern cotton-planter it 
might be more reasonably expected. He may reason after this wise : 

WHY IS THE COTTON PLANTER FOR FREE-TRADE? 

May he not answer the question by saying ; " My staple is cotton ; 
the home market is secured to me for the article, by a duty of three 
cents per pound, about fifty per cent ad valorem ; my crop is made by 
my own slave labor ; I only pay seventy-two cents per cwt. duty on 
the crop in England, while the produce of bacon pays two dollars per 
cwt. ; my cotton is worth six dollars per cwt. in Charleston, the bacon 
of Indiana is worth four dollars per cwt. at New Orleans ; so that [ 
pay one dollar and eighteen cents less for six dollars worth of my pro- 
duce than the farmer of Indiana pays for'four dollars worth of his. 
The price of my cotton in the English market does not depend upon 
the price of the products of Indiana, upon which I feed my slaves to 
make the crop, hence my policy is to bring down the price of meats 
and bread-stufi's, or slave food, as low as possible, which will give me 
the greatest profit on the crop ; and to do this I require free-trade, or 
low tariffs of duties on British manufactured articles, so as to enable 
them to give me more for my cotton, to sell to us again manufactured ; 
while, by the same operation, slave food is brought down to the lowest 
price by the destruction of the home market, and the increase of pro- 
duce, turning our manufacturers into farmers." Would this reasoning 
satisfy an Indiana farmer that such was his policy, even if it should 
the British and Southern free-trade school. 

HIGH TARIFFS PRODUCE SMUGGLING. 

This objection is frequently urged against high tariffs. The writer 
of the pamphlet has but repeated the arguments of others on this 
point. That reckless persons and freebooters should be willing to 
risk the consequences of forfeiting their goods in an attempt to evade 
the vigilance of our revenue officers, is, perhaps, to be expected, 
whether the rates of duties be high or low. Little prejudice to the 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 315 

revenue, however, was experienced from that source, by the Govern- 
ment, under the high tariff duties of 1828, as the amount of revenue 
collected at that period will satisfactorily demonstrate. However, 
with this very position of the danger of smuggling in his mouth, the 
writer introduces the low duties imposed by the tariff of 1842, on 
jewelry, etc., articles that are of little weight and bulk, and of great 
value, which to the amount of thousands of dollars could be smuggled 
about the person of each passenger from abroad, and intimates that 
the low duties imposed was to benefit the rich, when he must have 
known that it was to get some revenue from these articles of import, 
and, if possible, to make them contribute something to the National 
Treasury. What had become of his dread of smuggling when he con- 
demned Congress for not levying higher duties on such articles? the 
effect of which would have been to place the whole trade in the hands 
of smugglers. It is easy to find fault with a particular duty on a 
selected article, without knowing the reasons for its imposition, as the 
writer of the pamphlet is well aware, which might have prompted him 
to seek for some other motive than the unworthy one he charges, for 
the imposition of a low duty on these articles. He seems hard to 
please. 

MARKET THROUGH CANADA. 

The free-trade modern Democratic party point us to the channel 
through Canada to the British market, and tell us here is free-trade 
for the produce of the North-Western States. This is one of their 
opposing arguments to the doctrines of protection, and the necessity 
of fostering an American market for American jjrodiice. We will 
briefly examine this boasted boon. We have given a table showing 
the duties levied in England on American as well as Colonial produce. 
The following extracts from high authority, will place the matter in 
its true light : " The colonists have been incessantly urging the 
demand on the mother country, for free admission of tlieir bread- 
stuffs, but have been denied this boon on the ground that such an 
arrangement would enable Americans to send in their grain free 
from duty ; accordingly, last session of the Canadian Parliament a 
duty of 3s. sterling per imperial quarter, or 4|-d. sterling per impe- 
rial bushel was imposed on American wheat, which act was reserved 
for the assent of the Imperial Government, that unless the latter 
admit Canadian grain free of duty the act will not take effect. The 
provincial Parliament will probably impose duties on fresh meat, on 
cattle, and all sorts of grain ; the articles of pot or pearl ashes, flax, 
hemp, hams, bacon, hay, hides and meat pay an additional duty to 
that levied by Sir Robert Peel's tariff under the provincial act. If 



316 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the new law enacted by tlie Canadian Government goes into operation 
in July next, the following will be the duties charged on American 
produce landed in Liverpool in British vessels ; with regard to pro- 
visions, a duty of 3s. per cwt. has been imposed on salted meat, 8s. 
on butter, 5.s. on cheese, and 2s. per barrel on flour. These duties are 
all paid in sterling money, at the rate of 4s. 4d. the dollar, equal to 5s. 
Id. Canadian currency, or nearly 102 cents. (See Mr. Ellsworth's 
valuable report.) This is the Boon, should the English Parliament 
accede to it, that we are to receive for ' free trade ' in our ports of 
British goods. This trade is to pass through Canada, loe are to pay 
the duty to the Canadian Government instead of the English Govern- 
ment; our ichcat is to be ground at their mills; the flour is to be car- 
ried by their conveyances at our expense, to their ports, and then to be 
shipped to England in British Vessels, excluding our vessels altogether. 
Such is the political view of free-trade in Great Britain." 

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 

The writer of the pamphlet thought proper to quote Mr. Adams to 
prove that in a series of years the imports and exports between this 
country and Great Britain have nearly balanced ; this he introduces 
as an argument to show that it is not necessary to protect and foster 
our American market for American produce. That proposition, inclu- 
ding bullion and specie, may be admitted for the sake of the argument 
without prejudice to our positions. The imports or exports or 
trade, between two countries may balance each year, and yet the 
one impoverish the other in the operation. The j'early account 
current is generally balanced between the master and servant, while 
the one rides in his coach and the other is covered with rags ; so with 
the landlord and tenant, the farmer and his laborer, the manufacturer 
and his operatives ; still one may be enriched and the other impover- 
ished by the terms and modes of adjusting and balancing the account. 
A fiirmer buys British goods of a merchant, for which he agrees to 
pay fifty dollars in produce in the fall : the time for payment arrives, 
the farmer calls with his produce, and is informed that the price of 
wheat is ten cents per bushel, corn six cents and other produce in pro- 
portion ; the payment is made at these prices, but the whole year's 
labor of the farmer is exhausted ; the merchant has made a profit 
on the goods — the imports from the ,store, and the exports from the 
farm have precisely balanced ; still the farmer is impoverished. About 
62^ per cent of all the exports of this country to England is in the 
article of cotton, at something like eight cents per pound, while the 
return imports consist of manufactured goods, at from 500 to 2000 



FACTS FOE THE PEOPLE. 317 

per cent advance on the cost of the raw materials. This advance is the 
price of British produce^ British labor, and the interest on British 
capital ; we have thus hought British ivlieat at $1.50 per bushel, and 
British corn at $1.00 in the shape of manufactured goods, while we 
have sold our wheat at 25 cents and our corn at 10 cents per bushel ; 
or in other words, they have bought our wheat at 25 cents, and sold 
it back to us in goods at $1.50 per bushel, to "keep up the balance of 
trade." But for the last four years together the balance of trade has 
been $18,000,000 against us in favor of England. (See Mr. Ells- 
worth's report.) 

TARIFF OP 1842. 

The censures of the writer of the pamphlet on the subject of the 
tariif of 1842 have quite as frequently fallen upon his friends as his 
supposed enemies, for whom they were intended. The writer says, 
" In vain do we look into this bill for protection to the farmer of 
Indiana. We beg pardon, to preserve appearances of impartiality, it 
is most graciously provided in this bill, that any beef, pork, wheat, 
flour, oats and corn imported from abroad shall pay a duty, as if we 
were afraid tl^at the half-starved of foreign countries could spare these 
articles, send them here and under-sell us. * * * This is nothing hut 
the mockery of protection to the farmer ^ This is certainly a happy 
hit at the tariff of 1842, even if it should not be so complimentary 
to the candor of the writer, for he well knew at the time he penned 
the article, that the tariff of 1842, as well as that of 1828, contained 
the very same provisions, and that they were merely copied into the 
tariff of 1842. Let us place this matter in a position from which the 
writer can not escape. 

We copy from the tariff of 1824: "On which wheat, 25 cents per 
bushel ; oats, 10 cents per bushel ; wheat flour, 50 cents per cwt.; pota- 
toes, 10 cents per bushel." A motion was made to strike these items 
from the bill, and upon the yeas and nays it was decided in the nega- 
tive — Andrew JacJcson, John H. Eaton, Richard 31. Johm^on, and 
3farfin Van Biiren, voting against striking out. (See Senate Journal, 
1824.) Was this " the mocker?/ of protection to the farmer f " Again : 
The writer says : " Mark the deception ; it is provided in another part 
of the same bill, that all cotton cloth which is not worth more than 
twenty cents a square yard, should be valued up to twenty cents ; 
now there is a great deal of that article that costs only from six to 
eight cents to make it at the factory, and this is what is generally used, 
especially by the laboring part of the people ; and yet by this unjust 
law this is valued as high as the superior article, that is, at twenty 



318 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

cents a yard." This statement is made by the writer as if these min- 
imums on imported goods were first introduced by the tarifi" of 1842. 
Why did he not inform the people, that they were introduced by Mr. 
Calhoun, in 1816, to prevent fraud on the revenue? Why did he not 
inform his readers, that in every tariff since the same principle had 
been maintained ? Why not give the following extract from the 
tariff of 1824? " That all unbleached and uncolored cotton twist, 
yarn, or thread, the original cost of which shall be less than sixty 
cents per pound, shall be deemed and taken to have cost sixty cents 
per pound, and shall be charged with duty accordingly." The same 
principle was adopted as to woollen and cotton goods ; and yet, strange 
to tell, this high protective tariff, containing all these odious provis- 
ions in the eyes of the writer of the pamphlet, was passed by the votes 
of Andreic Jackson, John H. Eaton, Richard M. Johnson, Thomas H. 
Benton, and Martin Van Burcn. The same principle is enacted in 
the high tariff of 1828, the bill of " abominations " spoken of by the 
writer of the pamphlet ; all this he unfortunately forgets, as well as he 
does the very unimportant fact that the tariff of 1828, the highest 
tariff that ever was enacted in this country, containing the same odious 
principle, was passed by the votes of Martin Van Buren, Richard M. 
Johnson, John H. Eaton, Thomas H. Benton, Silas Wright, Jr., James 
Buchanan, and William Hendricks. So much for these important 
discoveries in the tariff of 1842. But the writer has made another 
equally candid charge against the action of the Senate, pending the 
progress of the bill. He says : " On the 2d day of August, 1842, Mr. 
Tappan, one of the Senators from Ohio, moved to amend the bill, by 
providing that whenever our corn, flour, and salted provisions, should 
be received free of duty into any nation of Europe, that the President 
should make proclamation of the fact to the people of the United 
States, and that three months afterward, the articles made in that 
nation should be admitted into the United States at only twenty per 
cent tax on the value. Every Whig Senator voted against the amend- 
ment, including the Senators from Indiana, Smith and White ; every 
Democratic Senator voted for it." Here again the memory of the 
writer, or rather his industry, ftuled him before he got through with 
his story. We will finish it for his edification. The vote he speaks of 
was given in the Senate as in committee of the whole, the amendment 
was re-offered in the Senate, when Mr. Evans, of Maine, read the 
treaty of 1815, between the United States and Great Britain, showing 
that if the most inconsiderable nation of Europe should let our articles, 
enumerated in the amendment of Mr. Tappan, into their ports duty 
free, that very act, by the operation of the treaty, would let the whole 



FACTS FOE THE PEOPLE. 319 

of the British imports into this country at the 20 per cent, ad valorem. 
So soon as the point was made, Mr. Wright requested Mr. Tappan to 
withdraw his amendment, and he did so with the approbation of the 
whole Senate. So much for that discovery, which was long since pub- 
lished in the State Sentinel, and exposed in the Indiana Journal. 

THE SALT DUTY. 

The writer of the pamphlet has selected the duty levied on salt, by 
the tariff of 1842, as especially objectionable. He is welcome to all 
the capital he can make out of the salt question. But hear him. He 
says : " Salt, that pi'ime necessary of life, which the wealthy inhabit- 
ant of the city only uses on his table, but which the Western farmer 
uses so extensively to save his pork, and beef, and bacon, and to salt 
his stock, this article even in tax-oppressed England is admitted tax 
free ; it is there regarded, like the air we breathe, as an absolute neces- 
sary. But in this land of liberty, where we have so many stump pro- 
fessions for the poor, the poor man's salt is sorely taxed ; aye, taxed 
by this boasted tariff, this poor man's best friend." Would not the 
reader be led to believe, from the above, that the tariff of 1842 was the 
first act that levied a duty on imported salt? Such, certainly, was the 
impression the writer intended to make. How then stands the case? 
Under the tariff of 1816 a duty of twenty cents per bushel was col- 
lected on imported salt ; by the tariff of 1824 the same duty was con- 
tinued ; and this act, passed by the votes of Andrew Jackson, Martin 
Van Buren, Richard M. Johnson, John H. Uaion, and Thomas IT. 
Benton. When the tariff of 1828 was under consideration, an attempt 
■was made to modify this duty. Mr. Chandler, of Maine, in the Sen- 
ate, moved on the 6th of May, to amend the bill as follows : " That in 
lieu of the duties now imposed by law on imported salt (20 cents per 
bushel), from and after the 30th day of June, 1829, the duties on 
imported salt shall be fifteen cents per bushel weighing fifty-six 
pounds, until the 30th day of June, 1839, and after that day the duty 
shall be ten cents per bushel weighing fifty-six pounds." Upon this 
amendment, striking off one-fourth of the duty on salt at once, and 
one-half after the 30th of June, 1839, the following Senatoi'S voted in 
the negative : Martin Van Buren, Richard M. Johnson, Mahlon Dick- 
erson, and Wm. Ilcnd ricks. The salt duty was left at twenty cents 
the bushel, and from that time until it fell under the operation of the 
compromise act, it stood at twenty cents. Such was the tax levied and 
collected upon this article during the whole of the administration of 
General Jackson, while the Democrats held the Government, except 
as it was modified by the Compromise Act. Had the wi'iter of the 



320 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

pamphlet forgotten all tliis ? That is the most charitable view of the 
subject, or he surely would not have omitted so important a part of 
the history of the salt duty. 

A word as to the act of 1842, at which the writer of the pamphlet 
looks with such holy horror. That act levies a duty of eight cents on 
the article — less than one-half as much as Gni. Jacl^son, Mr. Van 
Buren^ Col. Johiiso)i, and W?n. HendricJiS had decided was just and 
proper, and the Indiana Senators, " Smith and White," voted to strike 
that out, and make salt free, while Mr. Wright, the immediate repre- 
sentative of the State and views of Mr. Van Buren, voted to retain it 
in the bill. Why did not the writer of " facts " state these facts, if he 
desired to give all the facts to the people of Indiana ? The writer 
complains that we have to pay a high duty on foreign salt, to salt our 
beef and pork to send abroad, as the domestic salt will not answer. 
Surely, we pay no duty at all, if the doctrines of the writer of the 
pamphlet, and his school of politicians, be true — " The consumer pays 
the dutyj' This is his position ; let him see how it cuts up by the roots 
his salt tax, so far as it applies to salted provisions not consumed in 
Indiana, or the State or country where they are packed. 

A " HIGH TARIFF DEFEATS ITS OBJECT," 

Says the author of the pamphlet. Its object is revenue, he says : 
and that object is defeated by high duties. He admits that the tariff 
of 1828, was the highest that has cvpr been passed in this country ; 
and he tells us that the Compromise Act was passed to bring down the 
rate of duties to the revenue standard. Was it because we collected 
too much, or too little revenue ? Let him answer. Mr. Calhoun con- 
tends that it was the high tariff of 1828, that not only paid off the 
National Debt, but was the cause of an overflowing Treasury. The 
fact is beyond controversy ; that we had money enough in the Treasury 
and to spare, under this high tariff; while under the low pressure, ad 
valorem, twenty per cent duties of the Compromise Act, which is the 
favorite of the writer of the pamphlet, our Treasury was empty, the 
Government bankrupt, our industry paralyzed, and our produce with- 
out a market. These are " facts for the people." So much for that 
objection to protection. 

" DEMOCRATIC POLICY AS TO A TARIFF." 

" In the first place it is to reduce the National Expenses," says the 
writer. Precisely so, we say. That is certainly the doctrine they 
jjreach, but it is not the ''policy" they practice. Unfortunately for 
the writer and his party, we have some evidence on that point also, 



I 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 321 

and we are prepared to compare notes. How stands this matter ? We 
presume it will scarcely be questioned, that the administration of- Mr. 
Van Buren was a Democi-atic administration in the modern accepta- 
tion of that term ; and we are prepared freely to admit, that the admin- 
istration of Mr. Adams was purely a "Whig administration. We will 
therefore take these administrations, by which to test this preaching rs 
practice. This will of course be entirely satisfactory to the writer of 
the pamphlet. 

NATIONAL EXPENDITURES. 

Four years of the administration of Mr. Adams, $95, 805,446. Four 
years of the administration of Mr. Van Buren, $142,561,945. So that 
the Democrats in four years reduced the expenditures of a Whig 
administration from $95,805,446 to $142,561,945, and still " the Demo- 
cratic policy as to a tariff is in the first lilace to reduce the National 
Expenses." These are facts for the people. The administration of 
Mr. Tyler is spoken of by the writer^ as being a Whig administration ; 
this is doing us over-much kindness. Mr. Tyler is one of the " mod- 
ern Democratic " candidates for the Presidency, disclaiming all connec- 
tion whatever with the Whig party, and standing in direct opposition 
to their measures. We claim no share or lot in his administration, so 
far as the executive department is concerned ; but we do claim for a 
Whig Congress, however, a very great reduction of the " National 
Expenses " from those of Mr. Van Buren's administration, as the offi- 
cial reports will finally prove. 

TREASURY NOTES AND PUBLIC DEBT. 

The author of the pamphlet is exceedingly anxious to charge upon 
the Whigs, the issue of Treasury notes to sustain the Government. 
He seems to have forgotten altogether that they were resorted to by 
the administration of Mr. Van Buren, to keep its sinking fortunes 
afloat until its close ; notwithstanding Mr. Van Buren found a National 
Debt of only $1,879,312, and cash in the Treasury, when he came into 
power, $18,606,792, and received in the course of his term, the dues 
from the Bank of the United States, and from the merchant's sus- 
pended bonds of New York, amounting together, over and above the 
whole National Debt, to about $25,728,480, besides all the ordinary 
receipts from customs at a high rate of duty, and $19,165,289, from 
public lands, and yet he expended all this and Left a debt, as offi- 
cially reported, of $6,488,748, but which did not include the annuities 
payable by the Government, or the outstanding appropriations. Gen. 
Howard, in his Zion letter, is conclusive as to the issue of these Treas- 
ury notes, and that they are the Democratic cvirrency. He says : " 1 
21 



322 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

was in f:\vor of Treasury notes, and voted in favor of issuing them, 
when I was in the last Congress. I am yet of the opinion that they 
furnished, and would continue to furnish, a most valuable currency, 
and with one modification would enter the general circulation, and 
would be a valuable medium in the transactions of society. I refer to 
their denomination ; they should be reduced so as to enter into the 
smaller dealings."' The writer of the pamphlet in his zeal to charge 
the Whigs with creating a National Debt, says : =' In less than two 
years, the National Debt has been increased hythem^io about $16,000, 
000 ! " Now, it so happens that this statement requires proof. That 
there was a National Debt to the specified amount, may be admitted 
without touching the question between us ; the charge is, that it was 
created hy the Whigs. This we deny. We say that Mr. Van Buren 
expended over $25,000,000 in his four years, more than the ordinary 
revenues of the Government ; that he left an ofiicially reported debt 
of $6,488,748, for his successor to pay, besides leaving a considerable 
amount of annuities to pay to Indian tribes, as well as a large amount 
of outstanding appropriations to provide for ; that he left the tariff at 
the lowest minimum of the Compromise Act, producing much less 
revenue than was received from imposts during his administration ; 
and, what was worse than all, he left the currency deranged and depre- 
ciated, and the industry of the people paralyzed, so that they were 
unable to contribute to the National Treasury as they had done before. 
The Whigs have created no National Debt ; they found one which was 
rapidly increasing under the administration of Mr. Van Buren, which 
they have done all in their power to arrest, but have been prevented 
by obstacles and circumstances, over which they have had no control, 
and for which they are in no wise, responsible. This article, like oth- 
ers, we are compelled to close without going so much into detail in this 
matter as we could desire ; but we have said enough to show that there 
are two sides to this matter, of a National Debt and Treasury notes. 

REMEMBER 

That " The mandate went forth in the message to Congress of Gen. 
Jackson, December, 1829, to destroy the credit and financial system 
of the United States. The first experiment resulted in the inordinate 
multiplication of irresponsible State banks, and the consequent excess 
of their paper led to the issues of most of the stocks of the Western 
and South-Western States, and to the creation of the greatest portion 
of their present heavy indebtedness. For we can not be too often 
ireminded of what shall never be forgotten, that during the ten years 
of 1820 to 1830, while a National Bank existed, only twenty-two 



f 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 323 

State banks were chartered with $22,000,000 of capital ; whereas, 
from 1830 to 18-iO, during the period of the State banlc system, the 
authors of which now call themselves the supporters of a specie cur- 
rency, and charge all the misfortunes and embarrassments of the 
country to the policy of their opponents, three hundred and forty- 
eight new banks were created, with $268,000,000 of capital. During 
the years 1835 and 1836, and part of 1837, while the system was at 
its hight, more than one-half of the whole amount of existing State 
bonds was created, comprising nearly the whole of the stocks of the 
States whose situation is becoming too critical." All this was done 
under the reign of our opponents, and now they desire to make the 
people believe that the condition of the country is chargeable to the 
Whigs. 

IS IT TRUE? 

The writer of the pamphlet puts the following inquiry to the peo- 
ple : " What would have been Mr. Webster's course on the tariff bill 
passed at the last session of Congress in 1842, if he had been there 
as a member from Indiana ? He would have found scarcely a single 
article raised or made in our State which is protected by that bill." 
This was no doubt intended as a censure of the vote given in favor 
of the bill by the Representatives from Indiana. So far as they are 
concerned, it is not very important to attempt a justification of the 
vote, nor is it of any deep interest to the people of Indiana to know 
how Mr. Webster would have voted as one of the Representatives of 
Indiana : but as the principles maintained by us are involved in the 
interrogatory, it may be proper to inquire whether it is true, in point 
of fiict, that " scarcely a single article raised or made in our State is 
protected by that hill." Such statements should not be lightly made, 
and if made, should, at least, be substantially true. As this is an 
issue of fact between us and the writer of the pamphlet, to be decided 
by the people, we give the following extracts from the tariff of 1842, 
and then leave the reader to decide whether " a single article raised or 
made in our State is protected hy that bill." 

EXTRACTS FROM THE TARIFF OP 1842. 

" On unmanufactured hemp, $40 per ton ; on ready-made clothing, 
etc., an ad valorem duty of fifty per cent. ; on tanned sole or band 
leather, six cents per pound; on all upper leather not otherwise 
specified, eight cents per pound; on vessels of cast iron, one cent and 
a half per pound : on all skins, five dollars per dozen ; on men's boots 
and bootees of leather, wholly or partially manufactured, one dollar 
and twenty-five cents per pair ; men's shoes and pumps, thirty cents 



324 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

per pair ; women's shoes or slippers, twenty-five cents per pair ; 
on rifles, two dollars and fifty cents each ; on axes, adzes, hatch- 
ets, etc., thirty per cent ad valorem ; fur hats, caps, etc., thirty- 
five per cent ad valorem ; hats of wool, etc., eighteen cents each ; on 
bank, folio, quarto, posts of all kinds, and letter and bank note paper, 
seventeen cents per pound, etc. ; on foolscap, imperial, medium, etc., 
writing paper, fifteen cents per pound, etc." This list might be 
greatly extended, but we are content to submit the issue upon these 
items. Is scarcely a single article of them " raised or made in our 
State?" If not, then the writer of the pamphlet is correct in that 
statement. But suppose it were true that the bill did not protect 
" scarcely a single article that was raised or made in this State," would 
that render it obnoxious to the censure of the writer? Have we no 
interest in protecting the manufactures of other States? Have we 
not material, water-power, and other fticilities for manufacturing our 
raw materials, that they have in any other State, and is the act merely 
to operate on manufactories in existence at the time the bill passed ? 
Is it not rather to encourage capitalists to make investments in 
that business, and by the domestic competition to bring the articles 
of domestic use to the lowest price to the consumer ? It is true that 
Indiana is most essentially an agricultural State, capable of producing 
almost any given quantity of agricultural products ; still she abounds 
in the material of a manufacturing State also. But suppose she was 
never to manufacture a single article, is it not a desirable object to 
give to the farmer a ready, safa, and good home market, for the sur- 
plus produce of his farm ? Give him a market for his produce, and 
he will prosper. We deny that we go for protection for the benefit 
of the manufacturer alone, and contend that the farmer, the person 
who raises the raw material upon which the manufacturer operates, 
and who furnishes the corn, beef, pork, flour, and other produce upon 
which he subsists, and which he is pi*epared to receive in exchange 
for manufactured articles instead of money, is quite as much benefited 
by protection as is the manufacturer. The views of the writer of the 
pamphlet, if founded in fact, it is submitted, ai-e entirely too limited 
for the subject. We repeat what we said on another occasion, that 
" There is not a country on the face of the globe where the diff"erent 
interests are so dependent upon, and useful to, each other as they are 
in the United States. It really seems that Nature's God had des- 
tined this great nation to remain forever one in interest, one in prin 
ciple, and one in glory — the climate, the soil, the products, in a word, 
the intercs-t of the whole, and the interests of the parts, all point to 
the same great vital principle, Union, now and forever. The South 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 325 

and Soutli-\Yest, from climate and soil, are especially adapted to the 
culture of rioe, cotton, tobacco, and indigo, and the manufacture of 
sugar and molasses from the cane ; these products will always be 
demanded for the consumption of the other sections of the Union. 
The Middle States abound in mineral wealth, which they are prepared 
o manuflxcture in sufficient quantities to supply the consumption of 
he whole Union. The East and the North have the power, the capi- 
tal, and the manufacturing skill, to prepare the raw staple of the 
South, as well as the wool of the other sections, for the use of the 
whole ; while the West, the fertile West, can furnish a supply of flour, 
corn, beef, and pork, to feed all the operatives of the Eastern, 
Northern, and Middle States, as well as all the planters of the South 
and South-West. The East may bear the same relation to the South 
in interest, that the island of England does to the East Indies, in the 
manufacture of their great staple ; while the home market will be 
furnished for the products of each section of the Union." Shall 
these great national and individual interests be left to the tender 
mercies of foreign legislation ? We say not. What say the people 
of Indiana? 

WHIG PROMISES. 

There are few subjects connected with political events to which the 
eaders of the modern Democracy so frequently advert, as to what 
they are pleased to call violated Whig promises. The writer of the 
pamphlet seems to have caught the contagion for this kind of politi- 
cal argument, as he has infused a goodly portion of it into his politi- 
cal text-book. They tell the people that not a single promise made 
by the Whigs, when they came into power in 1841, has been per- 
formed, and still they pretend to hold the Whig party responsible for 
the condition of the country. Is this fair? Is it candid? If the 
Whigs have carried out none of their measures, and have performed 
none of their promises, as they tell the people, then most assuredly 
the nation has been running down under the measures and policy of 
the administration of Mr. Van Buren, and the Whigs are in no other- 
wise responsible than that they did not arrest the deleterious policy 
of that Democratic administration. If their position be true, and 
they believe in their own measures, they ought to rejoice that the 
Whigs had fulfilled none of their promises, and they should hold 
themselves responsible for the present condition of the country. But 
suppose the Whigs have not carried out all their measures as they 
hoped to do, does it lie in the mouth of our opponents who joined in 
with President Tyler in opposing our policy, to upbraid us with our 
failure, and then hold us responsible? If they wish to state facts, 



326 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

why not tell the people that in a short mouth after the inauguration 
of our beloved Harrison, and before any of our measures were adopt- 
ed, he was taken from us by death, that the administration of the 
General Government was no longer in accordance with the views of 
the Whig party ; that President Tyler, listening in an evil hour to 
the suggestions of the enemies of the party that had elected him Vice 
President, turned against the Whigs and their measures, and by the 
exercise of the veto, as effectually deprived them of the power to enact 
their measures as if they had been in a minority in both houses of 
Congress, as they had not two-thirds to carry a bill over his veto. 
How then can the Whigs be held responsible ? Give us a Whig 
Congress, and a good Whig for President, and we will cheerfully hold 
ourselves accountable for the success of our measures and the pros- 
perity of the nation ; and if the Whigs will do their duty and come 
up to the polls, they have nothing to fear ; but they must vote to insure 
success. 

MANUFACTURING POPULATION. 

The old statement that the manufacturing population of a coun- 
try is low, degraded and miserable, is revived by intimation in the 
pamphlet. This argument against encouraging American manufac- 
tures was put forth in 1816, and the manufacturing population of 
Great Britain was referred to in proof of the position. Mr. Calhoun, 
who was then a zealous advocate of the protective policy, gave to the 
argument an answer that silenced those who had been urging it. He 
said the question was not what was the condition of the population of 
England with her manufactures, but what would it be without them, 
leaving the men women and children, thus engaged without employ- 
ment. The answer is conclusive. It is like objecting to a man as a 
bad member of the church, without reflecting what kind of a man he 
would be if removed from its salutary and protective influence. We 
have tested the matter in the United States. Let any one go to the 
extensive factories of Lowell, Massachusetts, and he will there learn 
lessons of economy, order, sobriety, and correct moral and religious 
deportment that he could scarcely learn elsewhere. A few years ago 
the spot where that Manchester of America now stands, was a solitary 
farm ; now it is a beautiful city, containing over twenty thousand 
inhabitants, industriously employed, beneficially to themselves and 
country. Nor is their intellectual improvement neglected : at a very 
recent date the writers for an excellent periodical published there were 
factoi-y girls ; so that it does not follow that a manufacturing popula- 
tion is necessarily less respectable than any other, nor do the causes 
which operate upon a dense European manufacturing population exist 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 327 

here, where all are at liberty to select their occupation, and where all 
can follow their employment with fair prospects of success, if econo- 
mical and industrious. 

DISTRIBUTION POLICY. 

The policy of distributing the proceeds of the sales of the publi 
lands among the States, to relieve the people from direct taxes, is als 
opposed by the writer and the other leaders of his party. To go into 
this question at large, at this time, would occupy too much space, but 
we may be permitted to say, that it is astonishing to find any citizen 
of Indiana opposed to a policy to relieve the people from embarrass- 
ments in any degree. Do our people need relief? Is money in Indi- 
ana too jilenty ? Are our taxes no burden ? Is our share of the 
public lands not worth contending for ? Shall all the money from 
the West be drawn into the National Treasury through imposts and 
the land-ofiices, and we have no return ? Shall the expenditures of this 
money be on the sea-board, and the West be excluded ? Shall we 
tamely yield all our interest in the public domain, as well as in the 
deed of session from the States, without a struggle ? So say the mod- 
ern Democrats. We say otherwise. Let the people judge. 

" POOR MEN." 

The writer of the pamphlet has professed great compassion for the 
poor. We do not wish to be understood as questioning his sincerity ; 
but as a general rule we would say, when you see a candidate playing 
the gentleman at large, living on the hard earnings of others, whether 
he be rich or poor, reading homilies in the street or elsewhere, about 
the " rich and poor" professing to be " the poor man's friend," — watch 
him — keep your eyes upon him — he has some design upon your vote, 
your person, your property or your labor ; set him down as an enemy 
to the peace, good order and jjrosperity of society. Look upon him 
in the same light as you would a disturber of the harmony of families, 
or mischief-maker between members of the same or different churches. 
We acknowledge no distinction among our fellow-citizens, except that 
which is drawn in legible characters between vice and virtue. We 
deny the position that there are distinct interests among the people, 
standing in opposition to each other, if rightly considered, and main- 
tain that we are mutually beneficial to and dependent upon each other ; 
that the interest of one class can not be efioeted injuriously without 
producing a corresponding injury to every other. The material of 
society has been so wisely constituted that its parts harmonize and act 
beneficially together, like the human body and the limbs, and a riot 



328 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

among the latter on tlie ground of separate antagonist interests, would 
be no more destructive of the health and happiness of man, than is 
this suicidal doctrine, that the members of society have separate and 
distinct opposing interests. The truth is, we are sailing the voyage 
of life, in the same political vessel, and are subject to the same tem- 
pests and storms; they may injure some more than others; but at last, 
if the vessel is stranded, wrecked, or sunk to the bottom, the officers, 
passengers, crew and cargo must all be victims of the catastrophe. If 
we felt disposed to follow in the train of thought of the writer of the 
pamphlet, we might ask the laboring man whether he gets along easier, 
has better employment and higher wages now, when improvements are 
suspended, than when times were prosperous, improvements being 
made, and capital energetically employed, by those whom the writer 
calls rich, and against whom he would willingly excite your prejudice. 
We presume not. 

FEDERAL MEASURES. 

Names are all powerful in political contests. Well do the leading- 
modern Democrats know the force and truth of this remark, hence 
they not only hold on to the respectable name of Democrat, but with 
one voice they stamp their opponents with the name of federalist, and 
their measures as federal measures. They abandon and adopt measures 
themselves at pleasure ; — at one time for a National Bank, at another, 
against it; at one time for the pet bank system, at another, against it; 
at one time for the issues of State and Local Banks, at another, against 
all bank-paper ; at one time for Treasury notes, at another, specie ; at 
onetime for distribution, at another, against it; and still they are 
Democrats, and each measure icliilc they sufport it, is Democratic. But 
the moment they abandon it for some new expedient, it becomes a vile 
federal measure, and all who support it federalists. 

" WHIG POLICY." 

The general policy of the Whigs of Indiana as to national measures 
is to protect by a tariff", American industry, thereby stimulating and 
rewarding the manufacturer and mechanic, and giving to the farmer a 
sure and safe home-marJcet for at least a portion of the surplus pro- 
ducts of his farm, leaving him to compete for the balance with the 
produce of other countries in foreign markets. To supply the National 
Treasury with money sufficient for an economical administration of 
the Government from imposts. To foster our commerce by confining 
the trade as much as possible to our own vessels, and making up for 
any partial loss of the foreign, by the domestic coasting trade. 

To furnish to all classes of industry a sound and uniform circulating 



FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 329 

medium of specie, and paper money convertible into specie at the will 
of the holder, emitted by a National Bank under the supervision of 
the representatives of the people ; and acting at the same time without 
charge, as the fiscal agent of the Grovernment, in the receipts and dis- 
bursement of the revenues; as the Bank of the United States did for 
twenty years, while it remained a national institution, without the loss 
of a dollar. To aid the States and people, through the public lands, 
in paying their debts, and especially their taxes, and by that means to 
bring back to the West a portion at least, of the money that is yearly 
carried n!way through the imposts and the land offices. All these doc- 
trines are denounced by the leaders of the modern Democracy as rank 
federal measures. 

" FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE." 

No one controverts the facts that are present and felt by all, that 
the nation and people are greatly embarrassed in their finances, that 
the Treasury is only enabled to meet the demands upon it by tempo- 
rary appliances, that the industry of the people goes unrewarded, while 
distress and bankruptcy pervade the land. Why is this so, and what 
is the remedy ? A few thoughts on these questions may be accepta- 
ble. We are practical men, and therefore direct our attention to the 
matter in a practical, common-sense manner, testing our views by expe- 
rience, the best and wisest of teachers, although not always the 
cheapest. 

THE TRUE POLICY. 

Keflect upon the following undeniable facts and their results, and 
then decide for yourselves as to the true policy to be pursued : 

This is not the first time we have been thus embarrassed. In 1815, 
at the close of the war, the nation owed a public debt of $132,103,472 ; 
our citizens owed at least as much more , our industry was paralyzed, 
our Treasury empty, and our currency deranged and depreciated. Such 
was the state of our national aff"airs when Congress assembled in De- 
cember, 1815. That Congress was composed of the patriots and sages, 
some of the Revolution, but more of the second war of independence; 
they were the staunch Republicans of the day, with Mr. Madison 
at the head as President. The desperate condition of public afiairs 
lemanded and received their immediate attention ; efficient measures 
vere essential. Mr. Madison recommended a protective tariff, pre- 
isely the same measure that the Whigs contend for now, and strange 
to tell, that '■'■federal mcas^ire^' and a National Bank were immedi- 
ately adopted with great unanimity by a Rejmhlican Congress, as the 
true remedy for the embarrassed state of the National Treasury, as well 
as lor the prostrate condition of the industry of the people and the 



330 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

depreciated state of the currency. The protective tariff of 1816 was 
passed ; the Bank of the United States was chartered for twenty years. 
In 1824 the tariif was increased, and in 1828, brought up to its maxi- 
mum. In 1833 the Compromise Act was passed, providing for period- 
ical reductions of duty. The tariff fell below the protective point, 
and the charter of the Bank expired with the close of the administra- 
tion of Gen. Jackson. With a recollection of these facts, the reader 
will be prepared for the results under 

PROTECTION AND A BANK. * 

At the time these great national measures were adopted, as we have 
already said, the National Debt was $132,103,472. At the close of the 
administration of Mr. Adams, it was 659,144,413. At the close of 
the administration of Gen. Jackson it was $1,379,312, and there was 
cash in the treasury 818,006,792. So that at the close of the admin- 
istration of Gen. Jackson in 1837, the nation was actually oat of debt, 
and we had a surplus in cash in the treasury of $16,728,480, besides 
having deposited with the States $28,101,644. Mr. Van Buren then 
came into power with a nation free from debt, $16,728,480 in the Treas- 
ury, about $9,000,000 due to the United States from the Bank and 
from suspended merchants' bonds in New York, which he received 
during the term, making about $25,728,480 at his command, besides 
the proceeds of the customs and the public lands. But the Bank fur- 
nishing a national currency was no longer in existence, and the tariff 
had run down below the protective point ; or in other words, the Whig 
or Eepublican measures had been abandoned by the modern Democ- 
racy. And what was 

THE RESULT? 

Mr. Van Buren administered the Government only four years, and 
at the end of his term, the $25,728,480, besides the proceeds of the 
customs and lands was all expended, and the nation owed a debt as 
officially reported of $6,488,784. So that if Mr. Van Buren had been 
compelled to rely on the ordinary revenues derived from imposts and 
public lands, he would have left the Government in debt $32,217,264, 
in his four years. — These are "facts for the people." Now we leave 
it to the leaders of the modern Democracy to say whether Mr. Van 
Buren mal-administered the Government, or whether these financial 
disasters should be attributed to an abandonment by them of those 
national measures adopted and maintained by the true Republicans, 
the Whigs. 

We have only given the general financial results, the reader can 
contrast the condition of the pecuniary affairs of all interests, under 



FACTS rOK THE PEOPLE. 331 

tlie former and late policy. The benefits of the tariff of 18-42 have 
not yet been much felt, owing- to the short period it has existed, and 
to the pecuniary embarrassments of the people ; nor can it ever be of 
so much benefit to the industry of the country, without, as it would be 
with a sound, uniform, paper circulating medium to aid its operation. 
Without such a currency, experience has taught us that this nation 
must continue to be embarrassed. The general laws of a country 
require time to develop their blessings, however wise they may be ; 
and more especially does this principle apply to tariflF laws — they 
should never be disturbed for light causes. We hold, that the same 
measures that were adopted by the Republican party, at the close of 
the war, to pay off the national debt, replenish an exhausted treasury, 
and lift the prostrate industry of the country from the dust, are the 
true measures of this nation at this time. They produced the desired 
effect, and shall we turn a deaf ear to the voice of reason and experi- 
ence ? Shall we prove, in our persons, that man is the only animal 
that will rush madly against the lessons of experience, to his own 
desti'uction ? Are we so much wiser than those patriarchs and states- 
men who have preceded us, that we should repudiate the measures 
which they adopted, and which proved to be wise and judicious, 
exactly adapted to the genius of our people, their habits and pursuits 
in life, under which we have prospered, without a parallel in the his- 
tory of the rise and progress of any other nation on the face of the 
globe ? Let the people answer. 

CONCLUSION. 

We need not tell our fellow-citizens, that we ardently desire to see 
our beloved country marching onward to her destined greatness. Shall 
we tell you that we hope to see Indiana rise to her true position in the 
galaxy of States ? Are we required to say, that we wish to see our 
fellow-citizens of Indiana prosperous and happy? How could it be 
otherwise? If there were no other ties to bind us, the fact that " wife, 
children, and friends" are among the passengers and crew of the gal- 
lant vessel, would be a sufficient guaranty of our devotion to Indiana, 
and all that is dear to her. We hope enough has been said to give 
the people at least a glimmering of the other side of the questions 
involved in the pamphlet which we have cursorily noticed. We 
believe that the doctrines advanced and maintained by the writer of 
that pamphlet are adverse to the best interests of the nation, and 
people. We have deemed it right to present the matter to our fellow- 
citizens, calmly, frankly, and candidly, and we only regret that our 



332 EAELY INDIAIN'A TRIALS. 

limits do not allow us to do more justice to the subject. We have, 
throughout, drawn a distinction between the modern Democratic party, 
and the old Republican party, and have shown how far that discrim- 
ination is justified b}'^ the measures of each. We have also maintained 
the distinction between the leaders and the people of the self-styled 
modern Democratic party, believing, as we do, that the great body of 
the people hold no fellowship with the doctrines advocated by these 
professed leaders. We have plainly and freely laid our principles and 
policy before you. We ask you to examine them for yourselves, as 
we can not doubt but that you will, by so doing, arrive at the conclu- 
sion to which we have come, as to which is the true American policy 
of the Government. 



BUCKWHEAT STRAW PRINCIPLE. 333 

BUCKWHEAT STRAW PRINCIPLE. 

Forty years ago, there resided some miles back of Rising Sun, in 
Dearborn county, a small farmer, by the name of John Payne, an 
emigrant from the State of New York. Mrs. Payne was a neat, clean, 
fine housekeeper. Her table looked nice, the cloth, and every thing 
neat and clean ; in fact, hers was one of the best places in the woods 
to get a meal, as we ranged in our gunning excursions. I had noticed 
some half a dozen lively little flaxen-headed daughters running 
around, occasionally assisting their mother with her domestic affairs. 
I remarked to her one day, " Who would not be proud of such fine 
daughters." I touched the right string, it vibrated with a flash. 
" Yes, Mr. Smith ; they are my jewels, if I have nothing else to be 
proud of, I can look at my little daughters and feel happy." My 
gunning days were soon over, and I never visited Mrs. Payne's again. 
Time rolled on, the 3Iisses Payne, as they grew of age, were married 
one after another, to the very first young men in the country. I met 
Mr. Payne, years afterward, at court, at Lawreneeburg, and inquired 
after his family. " The old lady is well, and my daughters are all 
married." " Yes, I noticed their marriage in the papers ; they married 
well." " Of course they did ; I married them off on the huckivheat 
straw principle." " How is that." " You may let your buckwheat 
straw lie in the open field, where your cattle run, without fence as 
long as you please, and they will never eat a straw of it; but just put 
a light, rickety fence around it, let the cattle break over, and dog them 
out a few times ; still mend up the fence, and they will break down your 
fence again, and eat up the straw clean ; so with the young men and 
the girls. My daughters were well raised, good-looking, smart, and 
finely dressed; they attended public gatherings, and were much 
admired, I kept my eyes on them, and whenever one of them was 
accompanied home by a young man just such as I would like, I would 
privately tell some of his associates that he must never be seen about 
my house again, or it would not be good for him ; the principle never 
failed to operate, a clandestine marriage soon followed, the new son- 
in-law was forgiven, and all things moved on smoothly, until another 
daughter was marriageable." I laughed at the idea, still there may 
be more in it than meets the eye. 



A PANTHER. 

Many years ago, while our frontier counties were a wilderness, the 
settlers lived far apart. It had been whispered about in private cir- 



334 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

cles, that some boys had seen a panther looking out of a hole in a big 
black -walnut tree. The story was doubted by many, still it was suffi- 
ciently alarming to induce settlers to prepare themselves with rifles 
and large packs of hounds. Among the settlers there was a man, for 
the sake of a name, I call Dodridge Alley, a neighborhood leader. 
He had often been elected captain of one side at log-rollings and corn- 
shuckings. Dodridge had one of the severest packs of hounds in the 
settlement, of which he often boasted, especially of old " Ring.'''' The 
county in which Dodridge resided was entitled to a Kepresentative in 
the State Legislature; a number of candidates brought themselves out, 
Dodridge among them. There were no caucuses, or conventions in 
that day, every one run upon his own hook, and mounted his own 
hobby. Dodridge believed strongly in love at first sight, and early 
marriages ; he selected the idea of authorizing constables in their 
several townships to solemnize marriages, so as to tie the hymeneal 
knot, before the first love could have time to cool, while they were 
sending to town for the preacher. Dodridge had, no doubt, seen the 
first verse in " Love at first sight," but had not read the last. 

' Oh there's naught in the wide world like love at first sight, 
I've said it — I've sung it — and am I not right? 
Oh yes, and I'll prove it. I happened to note 
Last night on the river a beautiful boat. 
A maid sat within it — how paint what I feel; 
I saw her jet ringlets — I saw her profile! 
I knelt on the bank — I was wild with delight : 
Oh ! there's naught in the wide world like love at first sight. 

" This morning I sought her — I stated the case ; 

She- rose to receive me — I saw her full face .' 

She looked all the love that one eye can express, — 

She couldn't do more, and she didn't do less; 

And, oh, when I called her, she limpingly came, 

Just as if, little darling! she hadn't been lame ! 

Her ringlets were false, she was four feet in hight ; 

Oh there's naught in the wide world like love at first sight." 

The contest was very close, but Dodridge triumphed, the session of 
the Legislature was approaching, a new suit of clothes would be 
needed, the yarn was spun, the cloth wove, and colored with butter- 
nut bark, a kind of yellowish brown. The neighboring tailor had cut 
and made the suit, coat, vest and pantaloons ; they hung in folds 
upon him, but still he looked pretty well, and felt right comfortable, 
as the blood had free circulation. All things were ready for his depar- 
ture for the capital ; business required him to go to one of the upper 



A HYMX IN THE LEGISLATURE, ETC. 335 

settlements. He dressed up in his fine new butter-nut suit for the first 
time, promising to be back to supper. Time passed on and no Dod- 
ridge. His h\dy became uneasy, the story of the panther came fresh 
in her mind, the clock struck ten, still no Dodridge. The dogs had 
not been seen for an hour before dark. Hark ! the sound of hounds 
are heard in the distant forest. A panther, no doubt. Night wore 
away, the morning dawned, no Dodridge. The lady left the cabin, 
and directed her course through the woods by the distant baying. 
The spot is reached at last ; there perched on a leaning tree, some fifty 
feet up, sat Dodridge in his butter-nut suit, the very image of a 
panther, old Ring tearing the bark from the root of the tree, the rest 
of the pack baying at the top of their lungs. A word from the well- 
known voice of their mistress was enough, Dodridge came down, old 
Ring took the lead for home, and away went the whole pack, leaving 
Dodridge and his rescuer to walk home together, deadly enemies to 
butter-nut bark, while there were panthers in the woods. 



A HYMN IN THE LEGISLATURE. 

Weeks afterward, Dodridge rises in the Legislature. " Mr. Speaker, I 
hold in my hand a bill to authorize constables to solemnize marriage ; 
it is laid ofi^ into sections of four lines." A member I call Hugh 
Barnes, with a powerful sing-song voice, " I am opposed, Mr. Speaker, 
to that bill ; marriage is a solemn thing, it ought never to be entered 
into without the greatest deliberation, and the maturest reflection. 
Why all this haste to tie the knot. Constables ought to have nothing 
to do with it, except when they get married themselves." As the 
speaker progressed, he became more and more animated ; his voice 
rose to its highest tones, not unlike Old Hundred. As he closed, all 
eyes were upon Dodridge ; the speech sounded very much like the 
funeral services of the bill, and Dodridge looked like chief mourner. 
Dodridge sprang to his feet as quick as thought : " Mr. Speaker, 
would it be in order now to sing a hymn ? " The speaker hesitated, 
the House roared, the triumph of Dodridge was complete, the ses- 
sion closed, the bill was left for the next Legislature. Dodridge 
returned home, the hounds were disposed of, and there was never an 
ounce of butter-nut bark used for dyeing purcoses in the family of 
Dodridge afterward. 



WAS IT A FIGHT? 

At a term of the Circuit Court, the ease of the State vs. John 
Stump, a small, pock-marked Dutchman was called. A large, power- 



336 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

ful Dutcliman was the prosecuting witness. The indictment was for 
assault and battery. Henry C. Hammond, State's attorney, Benjamin 
S. Noble, for the prisoner. Case submitted to the associate judges, 
without a jury. The big Dutchman sworn. Mr. Hammond. — " State to 
the Court all you know about it." Witness. — " That little Dutchman 
and I were in the saloon. We bought a mug of beer together, and 
were drinking together. I drank first. The beer was so good, that I 
did'nt quit quite as soon as I ought. That little Dutchman said I 
had drank it all up. I told him he lied ; he told me I lied. 
I spit in his face ; he spit in my face. I slapped him in the 
face ; he slapped me in the face. I kicked him ; he kicked me. I 
tripped him up ; he tripped me up. I struck him and knocked him 
down ; he got up and knocked me down. I then got mad ; he got 
mad, and we were just agoing to fight, when the saloon-keeper got 
between us. That is all." Mr. Hammond. — " This is a clear case of 
assault and battery ; the defendant must be convicted." Benj. S. 
Noble. — " It is an affray, and the defendant can not be convicted 
until the prosecutor is before the Court." Associates. — "We think 
they are both guilty, and fine each a dollar and costs." 



TKIALS OF DAVIS AND WOODS. 337 

TRIALS OF DAVIS AND WOODS. 

In the afternoon of the 4th day of July, in the year 1844, the citi- 
zens of Indianapolis were aroused by the cry of murder. John Tucker, 
a quiet, peaceable negro man, had been killed in the street, by Wil- 
liam Ballenger, others being directly or indirectly concerned. Nicho- 
las Woods had brought on the fight. One had hit him with a brick, 
and Ballenger killed him wilh a single-tree. I saw Tucker on the 
pavement a few minutes after, entirely dead. Ballenger made his 
escape. Nicholas Woods and Edward Davis were arrested and held 
for trial. The excitement in the city was very high. A public meet- 
ing was held by the citizens, and Judge James Morrison and myself 
were retained to assist Judge Abram A. Hammond, the regular prose- 
cutor, on the trials. The prisoners and their friends employed Ex- 
Grovernor David Wallace, John H. Bradley, William Quarles, and 
Hugh O'Neal, distinguished advocates. Every possible preparation 
for the trials was made. The Ml term, 1844, arrived, William J. 
Peaslee, the able judge of the circuit, presiding. Bills for murder 
were found against Ballenger, Woods, and Davis. Ballenger could 
not be arrested, and has ever since evaded the justice of the law. The 
trial of Davis came on first, and was prosecuted by the regular prose- 
cutor. Judge Hammond, and Judge Morrison, his associate, for the 
State, with their usual ability ; and defended in able speeches by the 
distinguished counsel for the prisoner. 

It was clear, when the counsel for the defendant closed, that there 
was no ground, whatever, for the charge of murder to rest upon. It 
could be at most but a case of manslaughter, as there was no evidence 
of malice aforethought, and the killing was evidently under excite- 
ment and hot blood. Judge Morrison, in his closing argument, 
abandoned the charge of murder, and claimed a verdict for man- 
slaughter only. The jury, however, took a different view of the case, 
under the able charge of the Court, and found a verdict of not guilty, 
generally. The defendant was acquitted, and has since resided in 
Indianapolis, sober, industrious, and respected by all who know him. 

Nicholas Woods was next put upon his trial. Great preparations 
were made for his defense. The court-house was filled to suffocation. 
Many of his friends, male and female, occupied the seats near the wit- 
nesses. Judge Hammond opened the case, before the evidence was 
heard. The proof showed that the defendant had commenced the 
fight with the deceased, and continued it until the final blows were 
given by Ballenger, with the single-tree, and the deceased fell, a 
corpse. Judge Hammond opened the argument to the jury, in an 
22 



338 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

able speech of some two hours, plain and to the point, without any 
aiFectation of eloquence, as his manner and address always were. He 
was followed by Gov. Wallace, in an effective and eloquent speech. 
Mr. Quarles, in one of the ablest speeches of his life, followed Gov. 
Wallace, appealing with all his powers to the sympathy of the jury. 
As he closed I noticed a female friend of the prisoner in tears. Mr. 
Bradley followed, in a brilliant effort of over three hours, perhaps 
the ablest speech of his life. I closed the argument before the jury. 
Gov. Whitcomb was present during the whole trial, giving constant 
attention to the evidence and arguments, to enable him to decide for 
himself, as he told me, should a conviction be had, and an application 
for a pardon follow. 

The jury retired, after the charge of the Court, and in less than an 
hour returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter — three years at 
hard labor in the penitentiary. Motion for a new trial overruled, and 
judgment on the verdict. A petition, numerously signed, for a par- 
don followed, but the Governor had decided that the conviction was 
right, and refused to interfere. 



TRIAL OF HIRAM GASTON. 

The trial of Hiram Gaston, for the unfortunate killing of his 
apprentice, Lezar Luse, at the April term, 1849, of the Marion Cir- 
cuit Court, before Judge Peaslee, created great excitement at the time. 
I saw the deceased a few minutes after he was killed. Hiram Gaston 
was a highly respectable coach-maker, working in his shop, on the lot 
where the Bates House now stands, at the time of the lamentable occur- 
rence. The deceased was his apprentice, about twenty years of age, 
quite as stout as Mr. Gaston, and a highly esteemed member of his 
family. He was a good young man, and a strict member of the Bap- 
tist Church. Gaston and Luse, at the moment of the occurrence, 
were fitting a plate on a buggy. Luse appeared awkward, and Gaston 
took hold of one end of the iron, and asked Luse to let go, and he 
would fix the iron on the buggy. Luse refused, and Gaston pulled 
the iron, but Luse was too strong and drew Gaston forward across the 
anvil. Gaston reached back, with his eyes forward on Luse, and took 
from the block, upon which there were many light hammers and loose 
handles, a small hammer, by the handle, without seeing it, with no 
probable intent to do any great bodily harm, much less to take life, 
struck around, a side blow, that would have hit the body of Luse, 
below the shoulder, without injury, had he stood erect ; but at the 



TRIAL OF MARTIN L. COYNER. 339 

very instant of time Luse stooped, and the small point of the hammer 
struck the vertebrae of the neck, near the head. Luse fell and 
expired instantly. Gaston caught him in his arms, had him conveyed 
to his house, sent for a surgeon, exhibited the deepest possible sorrow 
and agony over the body, voluntarily gave himself up, and was taken 
before Samuel Henderson, Mayor. I was sent for, and advised with 
Gaston before the Mayor. The excitement was intense, the office 
crowded, the street i"n front filled with people. I waived an examina- 
tion, and offered bail. The Mayor fixed the bail at one thousand 
dollars. Gaston was left in custody till morning. That night the 
crowd was clamorous, the Mayor denounced, and Gaston threatened. 
I feared for the safety of his person. Next morning the Mayor's 
office was crowded early. Governor Wallace, the prosecutor, moved 
an increase of the bail, and supported it with a speech that was loudly 
applauded by the excited audience. I replied, and stated that the 
Mayor could fix the recognizance at his own figures, as Mr. Gaston 
would never leave the ground till he was tried by a jury of his coun- 
try. The Mayor required bail in five thousand dollars for his appear- 
ance at Court. William Quarles was then employed with me in the 
defense. We thought it best for Mr. Gaston to decline to give bail, 
and go to jail until the storm blew over, although he could have given 
any amount of security. Gaston was confined some time, the excite- 
ment began to subside, and before court the people were able to speak 
of the transaction with their ordinary coolness. 

The trial of Gaston for murder came on at the next term : David 
Wallace, assisted by Hiram Brown, prosecuted on behalf of the State, 
and William Quarles and myself appeared for the defendant. The 
evidence before the jury was substantially as I have stated the facts. 
The case was opened by Hiram Brown, in one of his strong, matter-of- 
fact speeches. I followed in a speech of three hours. Mr. Quarles 
closed the defense, in one of the best efforts of the life of that able 
advocate. Governor Wallace closed the prosecution with a speech 
worthy of his high character, and best Whitewater days. Judge 
Peaslee gave to the jury a clear and able charge. The jury retired 
but a short time, and returned a verdict, " not guilty." Mr. Gaston 
returned to his business, and has since resided in the city, with the 
good feelings and well wishes of even those who blamed him at the 
time. 

TRIAL OF MARTIN L. COYNER. 

Martin L. Coyner was tried at the Hendricks Circuit Court for 
killinor James Crow. The indictment was for murder in the first 



340 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

degree. Judge David 8. Gooding appeared for the State, Christian C. 
Nave, Hugh O'Xeal, and myself, for Mr. Coyner. The facts were few 
and simple, although fatally tragical. Mr. Coyner was the superin- 
tendent of a section of graduation, on the Terre Haute and Richmond 
Railroad, in Hendricks county, upon which there were a number of 
laborers ; Crow, a large, powerful, overbeai'ing, dissipated, quarrelsome 
Irishman, among them. Crow became-incensed against Mr. Coyner, 
and had frequently threatened his life. Coyner had been informed 
of the threats, and prepared himself with a long, sharp knife, for 
defense. The morning of the rencounter Coyner saw Crow coming, 
and to avoid a personal difficulty went into the woods and hid in the 
bushes, until Crow left, and then returned to his men. Crow saw Coy- 
ner, and went to where he was standing, on the bank of a cut in the 
road, with his back to a rick of wood. Coyner held his knife down 
his side as Crow approached, and again and again warned him to go 
away. Crow still advanced with a knife in his hand, swearing he 
would have the life's blood of Coyner. At the moment Crow was 
about striking, Coyner struck him one blow with his knife, under the 
arm. Crow fell, crying " Hurrah boys, I'm kilt." He bled profusely, 
and expired in a few minutes. 

The ease was opened before the jury by Judge Gooding, in a brief 
speech for the State ; Mr. O'Neal followed for the defense, in an able, 
conclusive argument, placing the case on the ground of self-defense ; 
Col. Nave followed in one of his happiest efforts, maintaining the same 
ground ; I closed for the defense in a speech of some two hours ; 
Judge Gooding replied in one of the strongest speeches I ever heard 
him make. The Court charged clearly upon the law of self-defense. 
The jury returned a verdict of " not guilty," and Coyner was dis- 
charged, to the satisfaction of the entire community, and is now 
amons; the most industrious of our citizens. 



A TIGHT FIT. 

In early times there lived in Indiana a man by the name of George 
Boone, a descendant of the celebrated Daniel Boone, who should not 
be overlooked in these sketches, although I have not space to pay the 
same respect to many others whom I would be pleased to notice. 
George Boone would have stood well in those days when there were 
giants in the land. He was near seven feet high, with larae bones 
and muscles ; his hands were large, but his feet were beyond any 
thing of the kind I have ever seen in length, breadth and depth. I 



A FIGHT IN THE SENATE. 341 

can best give some idea of them by relating an incident that George 
used to relate with a gusto, after he became one of our State Senators. 
" I was about eighteen years of age, when, for the first time, I took it 
into my head to go a sparking. One of my neighbors, a few miles 
off, had a large, pretty daughter that, I thought, would just suit me. 
It was late in the fall, and the weather pretty cold ; still it was too 
early to jDut on shoes. The Sunday evening had come ; I dressed 
in my best butter-nut colored suit, made some six months before, but 
soon found that the pantaloons reached only just below my knees, and 
my coat stretched over me as tight as an eel-skin dried on a hoop-pole. 
I started barefoot, wading the creeks and muddy bottoms till I 
reached the house. They were about sitting down to supper, and 
invited me. Sally sat by my side. We had mush and milk, and 
plenty of it. The old lady handed me a large bowl. I thought 
politeness required me to meet her, at least half way, and stretched 
out my hand to take it ; but I had made no calculation of the size of 
the table, the space between the milk pitcher and the bowl, nor of the 
width of my hand. I struck the big milk pitcher on one side, and 
out went the milk over the table. Sally jumped up, and went roaring 
with laughter into the other room. The old lady merely remarked : 
'It will all rub off when it gets dry,' and the old gentleman said: 
' There had greater accidents happened at sea.' But it was all over 
with me. I saw that all was lost. Not a word more was spoken. I 
saw nothing more of Sally. The clock struck ten. ' Mr. Boone, 
wont you wash your feet and go to bed ? ' said the old lady. ' Yes 
ma'am.' ' Here is an iron pot — all I have suitable.' I took the pot 
and found it so small that I could only get my feet into it by sliding 
them in sideways ; but I got them in, and soon found them swelling 
tighter and tighter, until the pain was so great that the sweat rolled 
off my chin. The clock struck eleven. ' Mr. Boone, are you not 
done washing your feet ? ' said the old lady. 'What did this pot cost? 
I must break the infernal thing.' ' A dollar.' ' Bring me the ax.' 
' Here it is.' I took the ax, broke the pot to pieces, handed the old 
lady the dollar, opened the door, and never saw her afterward. I met 
Sally at a husking several years afterward, and as we met she roared 
out laughing." 

A FIGHT IN THE SENATE. 

But the end of George was not yet. He grew up to be a man and 
a colonel, and, like Saul of old, was chosen to lead the people. He 
became a State Senator and an able debater. His figure was so tall 
and commanding, his voice so strong, loud and clear, his manner so 



342 EARLY INDIAXA TEIALS. 

plain and unassuming, his coolness and known courage sucli, that he 
was both respected and dreaded as an opponent. While he was in 
the Senate a warmly contested question came up for debate, Rateliff 
Boone, Lieutenant Grovernor, in the chair. The Colonel was the 
leader of one side of the question, and a Senator, about four feet ten, 
limbs in proportion, with a voice like a " katydid," lead the other 
side. The chamber was crowded. The Colonel rose with his eye 
upon the Chair, and was speaking at the top of his voice. " That's 
a lie," squeaked out the little opposition Senator. " As I was saying, 
Mr. President—" "That's a lie." "As I was saying—" "That's a 
lie," in the same squeaking voice." " As I was saying — " The little 
Senator could stand it no longer ; sprang over the railing, ran round 
to where the Colonel was standing, and struck him with all his might 
on the back. " As I was saying Mr. President — ; " the blows repeated 
several times, while the Colonel, without taking the least notice of it, 
continued to address the Senate until he closed his speech ; then turn- 
ing his eye upon his opponent, " What are you doing? " " What am 
I doing ; I'm fighting." " Who ave you fighting?" "I'm fighting 
3^ow." " Me ! I had no knowledge of it whatever." The sergeant-at- 
arms stepped up and carried the little Senator away in a state of 
exhaustion. A glass of wine and the friendl}' hand of the Colonel 
soon put all things to rights, and the debate proceeded. 



A SLAVE CASE-"DRED SCOTT" DECISION ANTICIPATED. 

In the summer of the year 1822, a gentleman from Georgia called 
on me, late one night, to get my aid in securing a fugitive from labor 
by the name of William Trail. He was a light mulatto, had left his 
master with leave to go where he pleased, paying the one-half he 
could earn annually for the privilege of working from home and trav- 
eling. He had always paid up, but had come to a free State, and his 
master now wished to reclaim him. Trail was considered in the 
neighborhood a quiet, inoffensive, industrious man. He was arrested, 
and a writ of habeas corpus sued out, returnable nest day. The 
excitement was very great through the night, and in the morning I 
learned that my client had taken the alarm and left, forgetting to pay 
my fee. Trail was discharged, and afterward married a colored 
woman and settled east of Connersville, joined the Baptist church, 
bought and paid for a small piece of land, and was raising and edu- 
cating his children — when about midnight the large barn of James 
Smith, the preacher at the church to which Trail belonged, was seen 
in full blaze, and soon burned down. Smith openly charged Trail 



A SLAVE CASE, ETC. 343 

witli the arson, but there was no evidence whatever of his guilt, and 
very few believed the charge. 

Trail employed me to bring suit against Smith for slander. The 
suit was brought, and came on to be tried before the Fayette Circuit 
Court, Judge Eggleston presiding. Gen. Noble and Daniel J. Caswell 
appeared for the defendant. The trial lasted three days, and was one 
of unusual excitement. I was threatened, and indeed, I lost a good 
many votes for the Legislature, for which I was then a candidate, on 
account of my employment. The able counsel for defendant, without 
denying the speaking of the words, or attempting a justification, took 
the ground that my client could not sustain the action ; that he was a 
slave, and that by the laws of Georgia no slave can sue ; that he could 
not be a citizen of Indiana and at the same time a slave of Georgia ; 
that he brought with him to Indiana the laws of Georgia, by which 
he was a slave; that the color of his skin would he prima facie proof 
of his being a slave, if he were in Georgia, and as he brought the 
constitution and laws of Georgia with him, the same consequences 
followed here. In brief, the arguments at that early day of these able 
men, in the defense, assumed all the grounds of the recent decision 
of the majority of the Supreme Court of the United States in" the 
Dred Scott case, except that of the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts. 
I replied for the plaintiff, that slavery was a local institution, confined 
to the States whose constitutions and laws upheld it ; that this was not 
a contract where the lex loci contractus would govern, and where the 
laws became a part of the contract ; that the laws of Georgia could 
not operate beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the State ; that the 
state and condition of Trail, as a slave, ceased whenever he passed 
the line of the slave States, except for the single purj^ose of reclama- 
tion under the Constitution of the United States ; that the general 
pass, without restriction as to time or place, was obligatory on the 
master; and the day that Trail set his foot on the free territory of 
Indiana, he was a free man ; that no State in the Union, and especially 
no State admitted before 1816 — the date of the admission of Indiana 
— could interfere with or deny the provisions of our State Con- 
stitution, " that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 
tude within this State, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted ; " that our consti- 
tution containing that provision, was ratified by the people and sub- 
mitted to the other States in Congress assembled, upon an application 
on our part to join the Union, was unanimously accepted, and we 
became one of the United States upon the same footing as the original 
States ; the compact became complete, and from thenceforth, neither 



344 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the United States, nor any one State, nor any human power, except 
the people of the State by convention or resolution, could say that 
slavery or involuntary servitude could legally exist a single day in the 
State of Indiana, had the Constitution of the United States been 
silent ; and under that instrument only where the slave had escaped, 
without the assent of his master, into our State, can the relation exist 
for a moment, and then for the purpose of reclamation and no other ; 
that neither the United States in their united or several departments, 
executive, representative, or judicial have any control over the ques- 
tion, any more than they have to say that slavery shall not exist in 
States admitted into the Union, with constitutions authorizing it. 

I retained no copy of the able opinion of Judge Eggleston, in 
which he covered the whole ground, and I was gratified to hear him 
sustain each of my positions, and especially as he was a Virginian, 
and an able expounder of the Constitution and laws of the country. 
The jury found a verdict for twenty-five dollars for the plaintifi". 
Judgment accordins;. 



INAUGURATION OF VAN BUREN. 34.J 



INAUGURATION OF VAN BUREN. 

About tlie middle of February, 1837, 1 left Connersville for Wash- 
ington City, to attend the Executive Session of the incoming Admin- 
istration, upon the summons of President Jackson. The Ohio river 
was frozen over at Cincinnati, and the traveled route was by land 
through Ohio. At Wheeling, we found the ice broken up between 
Zane's Island and the city of Wheeling, and were detained two days 
before we could cross. The eve of the second of March, we arrived 
at Washington City, found the hotels and private boarding-houses all 
full, and were compelled to go to Georgetown, where we obtained 
accommodations. The City of Washington was crowded from all parts 
of the United States. Martin Van Buren was to be inaugurated on 
the fourth, as the successor of Gen. Jackson. The fourth of March, 
twelve o'clock, came. The Senate met. Richard M. Johnson, Vice 
President, took the Chair. The new Senators were qualified, and the 
body stood organized, every Senator in his seat, when the side doors 
of the Senate chamber were thrown open by the sergeant-at-arms, and 
I saw approaching down the wide aisle of the Senate chamber, the 
stately form of Gen. Jackson, and the smaller figure of Martin Van 
Buren, the outgoing and incoming Presidents arm-in-arm. Gen. Jack- 
son looked much older than when I saw him inaugurated, eight years 
before, on the eastern portico of the Capitol before thousands. His 
hight was full six feet, his person spare, rather stooping, his eyes 
sunken, covered by glasses, his hair as white as snow, thrown back in 
front, as he always wore it ; his cheeks furrowed, his brow marked with 
care, his step faltering with age. As he took his seat, he placed his 
hands on his knees to steady himself down where he sat, until the 
procession retired from the chamber. Mr. Van Buren presented a 
great contrast to the old hero. He was a small man, some five feet 
six inches in hight, light complexion, sandy hair and whiskers, mixed 
with white, eyes gray, head bald to the ears. He stepped with all the 
elasticity of youth to the chair, and seated himself by the side of Gen. 
Jackson with the ease and grace of a miss of sixteen. 

The representatives of foreign nations followed in the procession, 
and as they entered the main door in single file, and passed down the 
main aisle, they defiled to the right of the seat of the president of the 
Senate, and took the seats prepared for them in a row in the order 
of the admitted grade of the nation they represented ; Mr. Fox, the 
British Minister, at the head, then followed the French, Spanish, Rus- 
sian, Prussian, Austrian and down to the representatives of the little 
powers accredited by our Government. The fact struck me forcibly 



346 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

as these distinguislied foreigners sat before me, that the grade of the 
government they represented, might be easily distinguished by the 
dress of their Minister. The highest, the British Minister, was dressed 
in plain black cloth, with nothing to distinguish him from any other 
gentleman. The French Minister wore a blue frock coat, with only a 
golden star on the collar. As the grade fell the splendor of the dress 
increased, until the smaller powers were reached, — their representatives 
were covered with gold lace from head to foot, splendid side-arms and 
the most gaudy apparel; their attaches by their sides in similar court 
dresses. It reminded me of the character of the men who govern the 
world. It is not those of the most outside show, but the men of com- 
mon sense and plain dress, who look upon the external covering of 
the man as the least part of him, and not as the Indian, who values 
his horse by the splendid saddle and trappings with which he is cov- 
ered. I may be pointed to William Pinckney as an exception to this 
remark ; if so, upon the general rule I suggest the names of Dr. Frank- 
lin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madi- 
son, James Monroe, John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson and a host of 
other American statesmen. 

After being seated for a few minutes. Gen. Jackson and Mr. Van 
Buren rose and proceeded to the east portico of the Capitol, followed 
by the foreign Ministers, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Vice 
President of the United States, the Senators and Representatives, and 
were seated. Mr. Van Buren then arose, stepped between the two 
large columns, and proceeded at once in a low tone of voice to read 
his inaugural address. He closed, when Chief Justice Marshall 
administered the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, 
and the oath of office, before the immense crowd that filled the steps 
and grounds east. The President and Gen. Jackson left for the Exec- 
utive mansion in an open barouche ; the Senators returned to their 
chamber, the judges to their room, and the crowd dispersed. Such a 
body of men as composed the Senate at that time, I have no hesitation 
in saying, were never associated together before. Such was my opin- 
ion of them when I took my seat in the body, and a close and intimate 
acquaintance with them afterward, only tended to increase my admira- 
tion. The strong men of the nation were there. I name, Henry 
Hubbard, Franklin Pierce, Daniel Webster, John Davis, Samuel Pren- 
tiss, Benjamin Swift, Nehemiah Knight, Asher Bobbins, John M. 
Niles, Perry Smith, Silas Wright, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, Garret D. 
Wall, Samuel L. Southard, Bichard H. Bayard, Thomas Clayton, 
James Buchanan, Samuel McKean, Joseph Kent, John S. Spence, 
William C. Bives, William H. Roan, Robert Strange, Bedford Brown, 



INAUGURATION OF VAN BUREN. 347 

John C. Calhoun, William C. Preston, John P. King, Albert Cuthert, 
William R. King, Clement C. Clay, Robert J. Walker, John Black, 
Alexander Mouton, Robert C. Nicholas, Hugh Lawson White, Felix 
Grundy, Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden, William S. Fulton, Ambrose 
H. Sevier, Lucius Lyon, John Norval, Thomas H. Benton, Lewis F. 
Linn, William Allen, Thomas Morris, Richard M. Young, John M. 
Robinson, John Tijjton, Ruel Williams, Benjamin Ruggles. 

Of these great men two were Presidents of the United States, two 
Vice Presidents, fourteen Governors of States, nine Cabinet officers, 
five first-class foreign Ministers. Twenty years have passed away, and 
how have the mighty fallen ! Of the fifty-two Senators that formed 
the body, thirty-five are no more with us ; and of the other seventeen 
there is not one, save John J. Crittenden, at this time a member of the 
body. 

Mr. Van Buren nominated for the new Cabinet, John Forsyth, of 
Georgia, Secretary of State ; Levi Woodbury, of New Hampshire, 
Secretary of the Treasury ; Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, Secre- 
tary of War ; Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, Secretary of the 
Navy ; Amos Kendall, of Kentucky, Post Master General. The Sen- 
ate went into executive session, the first I had ever been in, with closed 
doors. The nominations were taken up and all confirmed, with my 
vote in the affirmative. The rule I adopted for my action, and by 
which I was governed on executive nominations, was to take the nom- 
ination as 2^rima facie correct, and not to vote against it unless I was 
satisfied the public interest required a rejection, which was not the 
case in these Cabinet appointments. There was little business before 
the Senate, and we adjourned in a few days, with the understanding, 
however, that the President would call an extra session of Congress, 
to replenish the Treasury, by a loan of money direct, or the issue of 
Treasury notes. Our State was represented in the House that year, 
by Ratcliff Boone, John Ewing, William Graham, George H. Dunn, 
James Rariden, William Herrod and Albert S. White. 

Col. Richard M. Johnson, then Vice President of the United States, 
was about the common size, heavy set, large head, with sandy hair 
standing out in every direction. He was one of the most companion- 
able, hospitable men in Kentucky, and one of the bravest of the brave. 
Still it was said that he had not sufficient moral courage to protect him 
from suits for security debts or indorsements for others. As presiding 
officer of the Senate, the Colonel was much respected. He was liberal 
and courteous to a fault. Still he was firm when necessary. I became 
much attached to the Colonel, and on one occasion we were returning 
home together in the stage. The snow was deep on the mountains , 



348 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

it had commenced raining and freezing. About daylight the driver 
stopped on the top of Laurel Hill, above Unioutown, and informed us 
that he was afraid to drive down the hill, that it was all ice, that the 
water had frozen, inclining to the pi-ecipice on the lower side of the 
road. The passengers all got out but the Colonel and myself. We 
concluded to risk it, the Colonel turning to me, " If we go over be 
careful not to fiiU on me." " You are on the upper side, I am in the 
most danger." " The stage may roll over." Putting his head out of 
the window, " Driver, keep the horses out of the way of the stage." 
Away we went at full speed, the stage at times sliding to the edge of 
the precipice below, and seeming to hang on the tree-tops. We reached 
the bottom in safety, and were at breakfast at Uniontown, when the 
foot-passengers came down. 



JUDGE BIGGER AND GENERAL HOWARD. 349 



JUDGE BIGGER AND GENERAL HOWARD. 

The summer of 1840 had come. General Harrison and Mr. Van 
Buren had been nominated for President by tlieir respective parties ; 
the notes of preparation for the great party struggle were heard over 
the nation. Indiana was among the first of the States to put on the 
political armor. In August, preceding the Presidential election, a 
Governor was to be elected. Both parties believed that the Presiden- 
tial election would be aifected by the result of the State election, and 
both resolved to put forth their whole strength. The conventions to 
nominate the candidates were held at Indianapolis. The delegates 
came up from all parts of the State, full of spirits, and full of confi- 
dence. To the lasting credit of both parties, each resolved to select 
their best man as their leader, as it ever should be. The Whig party 
unanimously selected Judge Samuel Bigger, then on the circuit bench, 
one of the purest and best men in the State. He had been for years 
my law partner, and I well knew his great worth. He was most 
acceptable to the people, and would of course receive the entire vote 
of his party. He was over six feet high, well proportioned, fine face, 
blue eyes, prominent forehead, a very commanding appearance, a fair 
stump-speaker, plain and candid in his statements, leaving a lasting 
impression upon his audience, always closing with an eulogy on the 
life and character of General Harrison. 

The Democratic party, with equal unanimity, selected Gen. T. A. 
Howard as their candidate. Gen. Howard was in Congress at the 
time. I saw him a few minutes after he received the news of his 
nomination, and have reason to know that it was cast upon him, and 
not sought by him. I had known him long and intimately. Though 
not a member when I was elected to the Senate, he was my warm 
friend, and I was his. We so continued till he died our Charge d ' 
Affaires in Texas, and I had the melancholy duty assigned me by the 
courts and bar at Indianapolis of preparinc/ for the records of the 
courts, and the use of his family, a brief address upon his life and 
character, on the return of his remains from Texas. Gen. Howard, 
like Judge Bigger, was large and commanding in appearance. His 
hair and eyes black, his forehead remarkably high, his features large 
and prominent, his complexion dark, his manners good, his mind of 
the first order, his private life pure and unsullied. As a public 
speaker he stood high ; in a word, I thought him then the first man 
of his party in the State. He was so considered at Washington. His 
friends there reluctantly saw him leave the House to enter upon the 
Gubernatorial contest. Still, they seemed sanguine of his success. 



350 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Gen. Butler, of Kentucky, proposed to guess a thousand dollars with 
me on the result, and Mr. Van Buren told me at his table that Judge 
Wick and Gen. Carr had informed him that there was no doubt of the 
election of Gen. Howard, — looking in my face, " What do you say?" 
'' 1 say, if Gen. Howard carries Indiana over Judge Bigger, you will 
beat Gen. Harrison in the State." The conversation dropped. 

The candidates were a noble pair of men, more alike in age, size, 
appearance, talents, learning, high moral and religious worth — the 
one a member of the Old School Presbyterian Church, and the other 
of the New — than any two competitor that ever contested an elec- 
tion in the State. It was an open, honorable contest, and both of the 
candidates came out of it with fresh laurels on their brows. The 
popularity of General Harrison was irresistible, and Judge Bigger 
was elected by a heavy majority, which was largely increased in favor 
of Gen. Harrison over Mr, Van Buren in the fall. This was the 
greatest and most exciting political contest I ever witnessed in the 
State. At that time I was chairman of the Whig Central Committee 
— made the appointments for the meetings over the State, appointed 
the speakers, attended many of the meetings, and spoke continually 
by day and by night. Our best speakers were filled with enthiisiasm 
and untiring zeal. We had on our side such men as Joseph G. Mar- 
shall, George G. Dunn, Albert S. White, William Herod, William 
Grahm, Caleb B. Smith, Richard W. Thompson, Henry S. Lane, 
Othniel L. Clark, John Beard, Newton Claypool, Samuel C. Sample, 
Jonathan A. Liston, John D. DeFrees, Douglass Maguire, Edward 
McGaughey, Thos. J. Evans, Hugh O'Neil, Martin JI. Ray, Schuyler 
Colfax, Thomas D. Walpole, William Me K. Dunn, Daniel D. Pratt, 
Henry Walker, John Vawter, Milton Stapp, John Dumont, Stephen 
C. Stevens, Jeremiah Sullivan, Joseph C. Eggleston, Wm. S. Coffin, 
William T. Otto, William G. Ewing, David Kilgore, David P. Hollo- 
way, Samuel W. Parker, Henry P. Thornton, James Collins, James 
Rariden, James H. Cravens, Joseph L. White, Jonathan McCarty, 
John Ewing, George II. Dunn, John Pitclier, Samuel Judah, James 
Perry, John Yaryan, Lewis Burk, P. A. Ilackleman, Abner T. Ellis, 
Randall Crawford, Thomas H. Blake, Elisha M. Huntington, Thomas 
Dowling, Judge DeBruler, Charles Dewey, John W. Payne, Conrod 
Baker, and others of the same character. Our opponents could name 
an equally strong set of speakers — Edward A. Hannegan, James 
Whitcomb, Merinius Willett, Findley Bigger, James Lockhart, Amos 
Lane, Thomas Smith, Gen. John Tipton, Thomas L. Smith, Robert 
Dale Owen, John Law, Joseph A. Wright, John G. Davis, Paris C. 
Dunning, Willis A. Gorman, Delana R. Eckles, Alvin P. Ilovey, An- 



GOVEENOR WHITCOMB. 351 

drew Kennedy, Marks Crunie, William Watt, Jeremiah Smith, Henry 
Secrest, John Spencer, Elisha Long, William Ilockhill, Nathaniel 
West, Nathan B. Palmer, Gen. Drake, John Carr, William W. Wick, 
William J. Brown, Henry Brady, James Brown Hay, Joseph Ilolman, 
Samuel E. Perkins, Ross Smiley, Wilson Thompson, and others. The 
campaign closed with a grand torch-light procession at Indianapolis : 
the first of the kind I had ever seen in the State. The parties vied 
with each other in the brilliancy of their transparencies, the bands 
playing beautifully, the whole heavens lighted up with rockets and 
the streets filled with bonfires. Gov. Whitcomb occupied the stand 
on the north side of Washington street, and T addressed the crowd on 
the south side; but the sounds of music, singing, explosions of 
rockets, and huzzas of the multitude rose above our voices. We left 
our stands and became silent spectators of the scene till near mid- 
night. Thus ended the memorable contest of 1840, by the election 
of Judge Bigger, Governor, and Gen. Harrison, President, both by 
overwhelming majorities. 



GOVERNOR WHITCOWB. 

Gov. Bigger served but one term, and was succeeded by James 
AViiiTCOMB, by a close vote. I had known Gov. Whitcomb for years. 
We had practiced together on the circuit in many important and hard 
contested cases, sometimes as associates, and at others on diiferent 
sides. We were friends while he lived. Gov. Whitcomb was about 
medium size, dark complexion, black hair and eyes, good features, 
wide mouth, eyes prominent, his hair nicely combed slick on his head, 
and well perfumed. He was a fine scholar, had a mind of a high 
order, well matured and discijjlined. ITe was cool, self-possessed in 
debate, and on the stump ; rather hard to find out, except by his par- 
ticular friends. He was a strong, shrewd party leader. As was said 
of Martin Van Buren, " he preferred going fifty miles to see a man 
on political matters, to writing him a letter on the subject." Gov. 
Whitcomb made a fair Executive, and was " rotated " by his party 
from the Governor of the State to the Senate of the United States, 
where he remained but a few years, until he fell a victim to a chronic 
disease, and died in the meridian of life. He was succeeded in the 
Executive chair by Joseph A. Wright, over John A. Matscn, Here, 
again, were worthy competitors in the field. 



352 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

GOVERNOR WRIGHT AND JOHN A. MATSON. 

I HAD long intimately known both the candidates. Mr. Matson 
was a law student of mine. I had with great pleasure seen him rise 
in his profession, and the esteem of the people, until he was chosen 
the standard-bearer of his party. The candidates both belonged to 
the Methodist connection ; they were both good stump-speakers, 
ardent, and untiring, canvassing every part of the State. Governor 
Wright succeeded by a decided vote, and served the first term to the 
general satisfaction of the people. 



GOVERNOR WRIGHT AND NICHOLAS M'CARTY. 

Gov. Wright was nominated for re-election by his party, and was 
opposed by Nicholas M'Carty, the nominee of the Whig party. Here, 
again, the parties had put forth their best men. I had long been 
acquainted with Nicholas MX'arty. He was among the best men in 
the State, and strictly honest. His talents were not of the brilliant, 
but of the useful kind. He was eminently practical, plain in his 
manners, social, frank and open in his intercourse. He was below 
the common hight, heavy set, with nothing very prepossessing in his 
general appearance. As a speaker he was plain, deliberate, and dis- 
tinct, made no pretense of eloquence, but always spoke sensibly. 
Mr. MeCarty has years since been gathered to his fithers, and lies in 
the family tomb in the Indianapolis cemetery. Governor Wright 
served his second term as Governor of the State, to the public 
approval, and soon after his office expired, was appointed by Mr. 
Buchanan our Minister to Prussia, and is, at this writing, upon his 
ocean voyage, crossing the Atlantic. In person Governor Wright is 
tall and commanding, with a large head, remarkably high forehead, 
hair light-colored and thin on his head, large blue eyes, wide mouth, 
long nose, good features ; his mind is clear, vigorous and impulsive. 
As a stump-speaker, he has had few, if any superiors in the State. 
His voice is strong and clear, when not too much used; but like the 
most of our public speakers, he forgets his voice, and even himself, 
in his subject and his audience. Governor Wright is one of the most 
untiring, persevering electioneerers the State ever had in it. I heard 
him the last night before the election of Governor Willard, on the 
steps of the Wright House. He was completely worn down, his 
voice gone, and his strength exhausted. He will now have leisure to 
recruit his strength, rest his voice, and improve his mind in foreign 
lands, as the representative of his Government. 



SENATOKIAL ELECTION IN 1842. 353 

SENATORIAL ELECTION IN 1842 

I HAD served the State as United States Senator. My term was 
about to expire. The next winter the election of my successor was to 
take place. The members of the Legislature were elected with direct 
reference to the Senatorial contest. The two great parties of the State 
bad been very active. Each had its candidate for Senator indirectly 
oefore the people. The Whig party, to which I belonged, were united 
on my re-election. The Democratic party were equally united upon 
Gen. T. A. Howard, as its candidate. In fact no other candidate was 
thought of by either party. As was the custom, in some counties the 
people ran candidates pledged to support the choice of their constitu- 
ents for Senator, although differing in political sentiments. This was 
the case in the county of Wayne, one of the old Whig counties of the 
State, giving at that time some two thousand majority for the Whig 
Legislative candidates. A Senator was to be elected from that county. 
David Hoover, an old and highly respectable citizen — a known Demo- 
crat — became a candidate, and, to secure his election, pledged himself 
to the Whigs of the county to support me in good faith for United 
States Senator ; and such was the confidence of the Whig party in 
his solemn pledges, that they elected him by a large majority. The 
county of Switzerland, another Whig county, elected Daniel Kelso, a 
upposed substantial Whig, as he openly avowed himself to be. 

The returns were all in and the figures footed up — Whigs, counting- 
Hoover's pledged vote, and Kelso, 76 ; Democrats, 74 ; insuring my 
election on the first ballot. It was, however, so close, and my sense 
of propriety not permitting me to leave my seat, and be present at the 
election, that I had doubts as to the result, as I wrote to Mr. Clay. 

It was the custom at that time for the candidates to ride around 
and see the members of the Legislature at their homes. I availed 
myself of the privilege, and visited Mr. Hoover, at his residence north 
of Richmond. He received mc kindly. I took dinner with him. 
He assured me, again and again, in the most positive and unequivocal 
terms, that he would not only vote for me all the time, but would, in 
good faith, carry out the will of his constituents, and his pledges 
before he was elected, by doing all in his power to secure my election. 
I left him with entire confidence, but at Richmond met with the other 
Senator, Lewis Burk, and was told by him that Hoover was not to be 
relied upon. I kept this to myself; I felt like Mr. Clay did, when 
he first became suspicious that Tyler would deceive the Whig party : 
" I can not believe that any man can be so deceptive." 

A few days before I left for Washington, to attend to my Senatorial 
23 



354 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

duties, I met Cren. Howard at Indianapolis, when the election of 
Senator came up in conversation. The General, like myself, was far 
from sanguine of the result. He said he knew well that one of us 
ought to be elected, if the will of our parties was to be carried out ; 
" But," said the General, with his eyes fixed upon mine, " the vote will 
be so close, that a man or two may be found, who, like Judas, would 
sell his party for a few pieces of silver. There is nothing certain." 

After the election was over, and we had both been defeated by the 
base treachery of Hoover and Kelso, the General reminded me of 
what he had told me. I arrived at Washington, took my seat on the 
first day of the session, and was never absent a day until Congress 
adjourned. The election came on ; both parties sanguine as to the 
result, as I learned from my friends, who apprised me every day of 
the prospect of aiFairs. Both Kelso and Hoover had given the most 
positive assurances of their fidelity to the party, and to myself as the 
Whig candidate — and even to the very last their treachery was not 
suspected. The joint convention met. The first vote showed the 
state of afi'airs. Gen. Howard received 74 votes — precisely what he 
should have received. I received 72 votes — four less than the party 
vote, with Hoover's added. Edward A. Hannegan received three 
votes, and Joseph G. Marshall received one vote. Kelso voted for 
Hannegan, and Hoover voted for me, knowing that his vote would not 
elect me, as Kelso did not vote for me, the next was his last vote for me. 
Gen. Howard received 74 votes ; I received 75 votes. Hannegan 
received Kelso's vote ; had Kelso voted for me I would have been 
elected. Hoover voted for me, knowing that Kelso would not, and 
that I could not be elected without the vote of Kelso. This was the 
last time Hoover voted for me, and Kelso never voted for me at any 
time. The third vote Gen. Howard received 73 votes ; I received 73 
votes ; and Mr. Hannegan received the votes of Kelso and two demo- 
crats. The fourth vote Gen. Howard received 73 votes ; I received 73 
votes ; Mr. Hannegan received two votes ; and Hoover voted for Gov. 
Hendricks. The fifth vote Gen. Howard received 73 votes ; I received 
70 votes, and Mr. Hannegan received two votes, Hoover and Kelso 
voting against me, and voting for Mr. Hannegan. 

The Convention adjourned, and then it was that both Gen. Howard 
and myself were sacrificed to a temporary party triumph, procured by 
the treachery of David Hoover, of Wayne, and Daniel Kelso, of Swit- 
zerland. The vote in the afternoon was taken : Gen. Howard received 
one vote ; Edward A. Hannegan received 7G votes, and was elected, 
both Kelso and Hoover voting for him ; I received 09 votes ; and there 
were four scattering votes. Gen. Howard was sacrificed by his party, 



SENATORIAL ELECTION IN 1842. 355 

while my party stood by me, for wliicli I shall ever thank them. 
While Gen. Howard was sacrificed by his party, I was defeated by the 
treachery of Hoover and Kelso. I do not know who cast the one 
vote for Gen. Howard ; he ought to be known. I would rather be that 
man than any other man who voted against me. 

I was lying in my bed at Washington, late at night, when I received 
the news from the post-office that I had been defeated by the treason 
of Hoover and Kelso. The next day the Committee on the Public 
Lands, of which I was chairman, met. I had a number of bills pre- 
pared that met the approval of the committee. As I rose from my 
seat in the Senate to report my bills, I noticed Mr. Benton, Mr. Walker, 
Mr. King, and Mr. Buchanan, on the opposite side of the chamber, 
looking toward my seat. After I had made my report. Col. King 
came over to my seat, and asked me if it was true, that I had been 
defeated. I told him it was. " That was what we were talking about, 
as you saw us looking at you ; we could not believe it. You are the 
first man that I ever saw that went on with his business in the Senate, 
immediately after the news of his defeat, just as if nothing had hap- 
pened." " I feel that I am worth as much to myself as I am to my 
State ; if the State desired the severance of the connection, it is not 
for me to complain. My only regret is, that the result had not been 
by the free choice of a majority of the people of the Statd However, 
I bespeak for my successor the kind offices of you all." 

I know that Gen. Howard never got over the mortification of his 
defeat by his own party. For myself, I have lived and prospered in 
private life, and am now writing these sketches, at the age of sixty- 
two, in fine health, without glasses. Kelso and Hoover have lived to 
feel as comfortable in the presence of those who once respected them, 
as Gen. Arnold did when introduced, in England, to the friends of 
Maj. Andre. 



356 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

THE RACE TRACK. 

The treaty between the United States and Great Britain was in 
progress. Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, and Lord Asliburton, 
were busily engaged in arranging its provisions. I was sitting in my 
seat in tlie Senate Chamber, about twelve o'clock one day, when Grov. 
Fulton asked me if I would not go out to the race-track with him and 
Franklin Pierce, to see the great race between Boston, Cippus, and 
Prince George. He said the Senators were all going. I accepted the 
invitation, and we started down the Avenue for the race-ground — 
Gov. Fulton Gen. Pierce and myself in one hack. Col. King, Mr. Man- 
gum and Col. Sevier in another, and other Senators in other hacks. 
About two miles north of the city we passed up a rising ground to a 
hill that overlooks the far-stretching Potomac, the cities of Washing- 
ton, Georgetown and Alexandria, with the surrounding country on 
the south. Just at the foot of the hill in full view on the north lay 
the Washington race-course, inclosed with a high board fence. On 
one side was the judges stand, near which was the covered stand for 
ladies, and others, giving a full view of the horses on every part of 
the course. The course was a mile in length, and the heats of four 
miles by their rules were run four times round, with a rest of thirty 
minutes between each heat, and requiring one horse to win two heats 
to take the stakes. Carriages entered the front gate and had the privi- 
lege of the whole ground, inside the track. We drove in, and took 
our stand on the high ground, near the center of the circle. There 
were some fifty carriages, and as many on horseback, but very few on 
foot. Throwing my eye on the back-ground, I saw two large, heavy- 
set men walking quietly along, apparently in deep and close conversa- 
tion. I kept my eye upon them; as they approached^ our carriage 
Mr. Webster, in his blue coat and^ bright metal buttons said, " Gentle- 
men, let me make you acquainted with Lord Ashburton." We had a 
few minutes pleasant conversation, when they passed on to the carriage 
of Messrs. King, Mangum and Sevier. Our attention was immedi- 
ately called to the opening of the gate from the stables to the track, 
and the entry of the horses. The driver was directed to move forward, 
to give us a better view of the animals that were to contend for the 
prize. " Boston " I had heard of, but the others were strangers to us, 
if not to the Sjnrit of the Times. The horse " Cippus," from the New 
Orleans course, was a long, slick black, a beautiful animal. He looked 
to me as if he could fly. almost like a bird. We learned that his owner 
and backers were confident in his speed and endurance. He passed 
on led by his groom. Then came " Prince George," the pride of 



THE RACE COURSE. 357 

Maryland, a beautiful blood bay, ^Yit^l black legs, mane and tail, led 
by his groom. Col. King remarked as lie passed by. " Tliere is a horse 
that has the running points ; he will win." I said nothing, for I knew 
nothing about the " running points," and as the Colonel lived in a 
racing country I supposed he knew all about it, of course. " Prince 
George " passed on, and then came " Boston," the great racer, Boston 
that was never beaten, until he was nine years old, and then by Fash- 
ion a five year old of his own blood, over her own Union Course, he 
carrying weight for age. Boston was a light chestnut sorrel, about fif- 
teen hands high, bald face, white feet, long body and neck, light mane, 
ribs plainly visible, strong bone, deep chest, protruding eyes, large 
open nostrils, elastic pasterns, strong hoofs, firm limbs, long switch 
tail brushing the ground. He was ridden by the celebrated jockey, 
Gill Patrick, who afterward rode him when he ran the great race against 
^Fashion, and who recently rode Prioress, on the Goodwood course, in 
England. The horses had passed to the stand : the jockies and sad- 
dles weighed ; riders up ; the drum tapped, and off they went. Cippus 
taok the lead, closely pressed by Prince George, Boston fiir behind- 
Around they went at a flying pace ; they passed the stand, Cippus 
ahead. Prince George lapping him, Boston thirty feet behind. Away 
they went on the second mile, the pace increasing. They passed the 
stand again, Cippus still ahead. Prince George pressing closely, Bos- 
ton, under a hard pull, thirty feet behind. Around they go on the 
third mile, maintaining their positions till they pass the stand and 
enter upon the fourth mile. Prince George passed Cippus, a shout 
rent the air from the Marylanders. Poor Cippus ! It was all over 
with him. His rider reined him ofi" the track. The contest for the 
last mile was then even-handed between Boston and Prince George — 
Virginia and Maryland. As they passed our carriage, Col. William 
11. Johnson, the Napoleon of the turf, galloped up, his white locks 
floating over his shoulders. " Gentlemen look at Boston, as he comes 
down the last quarter, I told Gill to let him run. He is the best 
four-mile horse on earth." They pass the last quarter-post head and 
head — Prince George goaded to the top of his speed. Gill Patrick gave 
Boston the rein ; he seemed to lie along the track, as he stretched him- 
self, in imitation of an old red fox crossing the valley from mountain 
to mountain, before the pack. His speed increased ; he seemed almost 
to fly ; he passed the winning-stand some thirty feet ahead. Prince 
George was withdrawn. Boston walked over the track alone for the 
next heat. The race over, Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton entered 
their carriage, and we all drove back to the city, after my first and 
last day on the race-track. 



358 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



THE ASHBURTON TREATY. 

Soon after in executive session, the treaty between tlie United States 
and Great Britain, known as the Ashburton treaty, came up for rati- 
fication. The pressing objects of the treaty were to establish the boun- 
dary line between the United States and Great Britain, known as the 
North-Eastern boundary, which had not been previously ascertained, 
and also to provide for the reciprocal surrender of fugitives from jus- 
tice escaping across the line. The treaty fixed the boundary upon the 
parallel of 49 deg. to the end of the established line east of the Rocky 
Mountains. The line was extended by a subsequent treaty on the 
same parallel of latitude to the Pacific ocean. The questions arising 
upon the treaty in the Senate were debated at great length, and with 
signal ability by the distinguished Senators who took part in the dis- 
cussion. Mr. Clay led off in favor of the ratification in an able speech. 
Mr. Allen of Ohio, replied, directing his objection to the boundary not 
being far enough north to include our claim to territory. Some South- 
ern Senators thought that the treaty should contain a clause providing 
for the surrender by Great Britain of fugitives from labor as well as 
from justice. The debate continued for weeks in executive session, 
with closed doors, with great power and unsurpassed eloquence. The 
whole line of our foreign policy and extensive relations with the civil- 
ized world, and especially with Great Britain, including the Impress- 
ment question, the Caroline case, the Creole slave ease, the Mc Loud 
case, the extended boundary question west of the Rocky 3Iountains, 
were discussed at great length. Mr. Benton opposed the treaty on 
many grounds, in able speeches, as will be seen by reference to his 
" Thirty Years." The debate had seemingly closed, the final question 
was put by the Chair, when Mr. Calhoun rose and addressed the Senate 
in one of the most powerful speeches he ever delivered on that floor. 
He maintained every clause of the treaty, passed a high eulogy upon 
Lord Ashburton, aiid did Mr. Webster full justice. The vote was 
taken, and the treaty ratified. With Mr. Benton, I thought there were 
several matters that might have been included in the treaty, but as it 
contained much that was essential to the peace and good understand- 
ing of both nations, I did not hesitate in voting for it. 



GEOKGE H. PROFFITT. 359 

GEO. H. PROFFITT. 

It seems to be desirable to some of my friends that my sketches 
should visit Southern, Western and Northern Indiana. I very much 
wish to gratify the desire, and may yet look over those fields for sub- 
jects of sufficient importance to interest the general reader. I am 
sure I can find many such. This sketch I direct to the South. 

In the great campaign of 1840, which resulted in the triumph of 
General Harrison, there were few speakers of greater prominence than 
George H. Profiitt, of Petersburg!!, Pike county. He was in person 
below the medium size, short, slim, and spare, a good mouth, head 
small, high forehead, cheeks bony, dark eyes, light brown hair. He 
was quick and ready, his voice remarkably loud and clear, possessed a 
fluent elocution, and a fertile imagination. The great power of Mr. 
Proffitt was on the stump before the people. I first became acquainted 
■with him at Washington City, while he was in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. He very soon made his mark in the House, and rose to a 
highly respectable position as a ready debater. As a popular speaker, 
in addressing the masses, few stood higher in the East. One evening, 
after dark, I was passing down the avenue from Capitol Hill, at Wash- 
ington, when I noticed a large gathering up at the City Hall. I 
walked up, and found it to be a political Harrison meeting. Many 
transparencies were exhibited. General Walter Jones, the president, 
was seated on the platform, surrounded by his vice presidents.. Just 
as I reached the skirts of the crowd, Gen. Jones rose, and at the top 
of his voice, " Is the Honorable George H, Proffitt, of Indiana, in the 
assembly? If so he will come forward and address the audience." 
A voice in the crowd, " Mr. Proffitt is unable to speak to-night. He 
exhausted himself at Wilmington last night." Gen. Jones. — " We are 
sorry to hear it — the people want to hear Mr. Proffitt. Is Caleb Cush- 
ing, of Massachusetts, in the crowd?" A voice. — " Yes, Mr. Cushing 
is here." " Let him come up to the stand." I was much gratified to 
see our Proffitt stand higher with the multitude as a speaker, than 
Mr. Cushing, the distinguished orator of Massachusetts. Mr. Cush- 
ing took the stand and spoke over an hour. J heard few such speeches 
during the campaign. He was rather taller than Mr. Proffitt, inclined 
to baldness, wide mouth and dark hair. He was fluent, loud, rapid 
and animated. The only fault I could find at the time with his 
speech, was its extreme bitterness against the Democratic party. I 
had been much on the stump in that contest, had heard many dis- 
tinguished men, and my observation had satisfied me that soft words 



360 ' EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

and hard aiguments was tlie true policy. The sun, and not the wind, 
made the traveler part with his cloak. 

Mr. Proffitt abandoned the Whig cause with his friends — Gushing, 
Wise, Upshur, Gilmer, Spencer, Irwin, and a few others, in 1841. 
His name was more fortunate than theirs, in not being rejected by 
the Senate. The reason, however, was that Mr. Tyler wisely withheld 
the nomination of Mr. Proffitt, until after the Senate adjourned, and 
then sent him to Brazil as our Charge. The Senate at the next ses- 
sion refused to confirm the nomination, and he returned soon after, 
in very bad health, lingered for some time, and died at the city of 
Louisville. The last time I was at Petersburgh I visited his tomb 
alone. As I stood silently by his grave, he seemed to rise as in the 
days of his pride before me, and then sink bacjc to his mother earth. 
How soon we pass from active life to slumbering death ! 



JAMES LOCKHART. 

While writing this sketch, I heard of the death of my friend Judge 
Lockhart, of Evansville, the former and present representative to 
Congress from that District. I had known Judge Lockhart for many 
years. In person he was much above the medium size, large and 
portly, forehead prominent, hair and eyes dark. He was a man of 
acknowledged talents, a forcible speaker, a sound lawyer and a good 
judge ; made no pretense to what is called eloquence, but was rather 
a matter-of-fact, straight- forward speaker, and much endeared to his 
friends. I part with him as I do with all my early friends, with 
feelings of deep regret. The Judge was a most valuable member of 
the late Constitutional Convention of our State. He stood by the 
ancient landmarks with great firmness. I give an extract from his 
speech on the grand-jury question in the Convention to show his 
style. On the consideration of the resolution of Hon. John Pettit 
to abolish the grand-jury system in the new Constitution, Mr. Lock- 
hart said : 

" There is perhaps no question that has been or will be submitted 
to the consideration of this Convention, of more importance to the 
people of this State, than the one now under consideration. The 
question for decision is — shall the grand-jury, an institution which 
has prevailed for so long a series of years in the country from which 
we have derived so large a portion of our present laws and institu- 
tions, and which has been so long and so successfully in operation in 
this country — be abolished ? This, sir, is an important, a grave ques 



GEOKGE G. DUNN — ^JOHN LAW. 361 

tioD, and one whicli demands the serious consideration of this delib- 
erative body. The gentleman from Tippecanoe, the Hon. John Pettit, 
has taken a bold stand in presenting this proposition. He proposes 
to change essentially the organic law of the State, and upon a point, 
too, which has not attracted the attention of Constitutional Conven- 
tions in other States of the Union. He desires to abolish the grand- 
jury system, and to substitute in its stead public examinations before 
justices of the peace." 
Mr. Lockhart combated the proposition at length, and closed : 
" During my brief career at the bar I have prosecuted for the 
State, and can bear testimony to the high and honorable bearing of 
the citizens who usually compose the grand-juries. Let them receive 
the charge of the Court, examine the statute law of the State, hear 
the evidence of the witnesses, and, my word for it, ninety out of a 
hundred of their decisions will prove correct. Malicious prosecu- 
tions, to be sure, may sometimes be preferred, but abolish the grand - 
jury system and there will be ninety-nine malicious prosecutions pre- 
ferred to one made by the grand-jury." 



GEORGE G. DUNN. 

And yet another ! The same paper that announced the death of 
Judge Lockhart, brought the melancholy intelligence of the decease 
of Greorge G. Dunn, of Bedford. I knew Mr. Dunn long and well. 
His was among the first intellects of the State. In person he was tall 
and slim, light hair and eyes, good features, prominent forehead, pro- 
jecting chin. He carried upon his physiognomy evidence of talehts 
and great perseverance. As a speaker at the bar, on the stump, in 
the State Senate, and on the floor of the House of Eepresentatives in 
Congress, Mr. Dunn stood deservedly high. I thought him among 
the strongest advocates before the jury I ever heard. His model was 
his friend Joseph G. Marshall ; like him, he forgot himself in his 
cause, disregarded his voice, taxed his bronchial organs too frequently 
beyond their endurance, and brought on premature affection of the 
lungs, which closed his valuable life at the very period when he was 
in its prime. 



JOHN LAW. 

I CAN not overlook Judge Law, with whom I have been on the most 
social terms of friendship for more than thirty years. Judge Law is 
a noble specimen of our race — large, portly, fine-looking, urbane, kind, 



362 EAELY INDIANA. TRIALS. 

hospitable and generous. He is a native of Connecticut, settled 
in Indiana in early times, lias contributed largely to the mass of 
mind, that has brought our State up to its present standard of pros- 
perity and general intelligence. The mind of Judge Law is of a 
high order. As a lawyer he stands deservedly high. As a judge of 
the Circuit Court he was kind, courteous and popular. He was of 
that class of judges who hear the case before they decide it, and when 
he did decide, he was not found sticking in the bark of the case. He 
looked to the merits and decided, as law and justice in his opinion 
required, with the strictest impartiality. He felt and acted like a 
judge who was blind to the parties, and just to their case. Judge 
Law is in the bloom of life, and in fine health ; long may he live. 
Such men can not stay with us too long, to cheer us on while our little 
barks are buflFetted by the winds of time. 



JOHN EWING 

How shall I sketch my early friend, John Ewing, of Knox ? Mr. 
Ewing was by birth an Irishman, small of stature, with a rich brogue 
upon his tongue. To say that he was among the prominent men of 
the State would be only doing him justice. Mr. Ewing was possessed 
of talents of a high order. As a speaker he had few superiors. His 
manner was ardent ; his tongue at times sarcastic and bitter. His 
frankness was proverbial, indeed if he lacked any thing to give him 
power and efficiency, it was a prudent discretion that would have saved 
him from the assaults of enemies. But such was the character of Mr. 
Ewing, that he would neither conceal his thoughts nor cover them 
with palliatives to save his life. He was a devoted and true friend to 
those he held as such, and a bitter enemy to those he considered his 
enemies. He practiced upon the principle of reciprocity for good and 
for evil : an " eye for an eye " was the rule of Mr. Ewing. He served 
his district many years in the Senate of the State, and in Congress, 
with decided ability. The last time that I saw Mr. Ewing, his head 
was as white as the driven snow. He will never see the isle of his 
birth again. His sun will soon set, leaving many rays behind. 



FOX AND ASHBURTON. 363 



FOX AND ASHBURTON. 

For many years Mr. Fox represented Great Britain near our Gov- 
ernment. He was under the common size, with a good old English 
face, very large eyes and remarkably heavy brows ; his manners were 
bland and rather prepossessing, his dress very plain, his conversation 
interesting. His talents were not of the highest order. He was quite 
a favorite in Washington circles, but so far as I have any knowledge, 
he was never instructed by his Government to make any important 
treaties with us. Mr. Fox was a relative of the celebrated Charles 
James Fox, of England, who was said to know every thing by weight 
and measure, though like our Webster, he paid no attention whatever 
to his pecuniary affairs, or rather like Cardinal Woolsey, he was " rich 
in promises but poor in performances," so far as his monetary affairs 
were concerned. On one occasion, he sent for his Ministerial associ- 
ates on important business, with directions to enter his mansion by a 
back window. Several of them arrived. Mr. Fox informed them of 
his embarrassed circumstances, and asked their advice. One of them 
frankly advised him to reduce his establishment and dismiss at least a 
part of his servants. " As we came to your house, we saw over twenty 
at the front door with staves in their hands." Mr. Fox roared out in 
a loud laugh. " They are all tip-staffs waiting to arrest me for debt 
the moment I open the door." The complex relations between the 
United States and Great Britain, had assumed a character greatly em- 
barrassing to both nations, Avhen it was determined on the part of the 
British Government to create a special mission to the United States, 
to act directly with our Administration at Washington, with full pow- 
ers to negotiate a treaty between the two nations. On the part of 
Great Britain, Lord Ashburton, of the house of Baring & Brothers, 
who had married an American lady, and entertained friendly feelings 
toward the United States, was appointed, who with Messrs. Mildmay, 
Bruce and Stepping, formed the legation. Mr. Webster, Secretary of 
State, received full powers from President Tyler to enter into negotia- 
tions with Lord Ashburton upon his arrival. 

Matthew St. Clair Clark, of AVashington City, in the days of his 
highest prosperity, had built a splendid mansion across the open square 
in front of the north portico of the President's house, at a cost of some 
^75,000, and furnished it finely. Lord Ashburton requested Mr. 
Webster to rent him furnished lodgings for the reception of himself 
and suite, on their arrival at Washington. Mr. Webster rented Mr. 
Clark's mansion, furniture and all, and agreed to pay 31000 per month, 
and keep it one year, with the refusal for another, and also to pay all 



864 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

damages done to tlie property and furniture. Lord Ashburton took 
possession of the house, held it ten months, paid $12,000 rent, and 
$1,000 damages, for breaking some lights of glass, tearing and soiling 
the paper of one of the rooms ; all this Mr. St. Clair Clark told me. 

About the close of the mission, I was invited with other Senators, 
by Lord Ashburton, to his dinner party, at the hour of six o'clock in 
the evening, the common hoixr for dinners at private parties, from the 
President down, at Washington City. Punctually at the hour. Sena- 
tor Huntington of Connecticut, rang the bell at the door of the foreign 
Minister. In a second the door opened and there stood before us one 
of the finest dressed gentlemen I had seen for many a day ; fine black 
coat, white vest, white neck-handkerchief neatly tied, black breeches, 
tied at the knees, long white silk stockings, morocco shoes, tied with 
black ribbons, white silk gloves, powdered whiskers, gold watch-chain 
across his breast; bowing politely, "your names, gentlemen?" Judge 
Huntington gave him our names, which he announced in a loud voice 
to the gentleman who stood at the door of the audience-room in the 
hall, dressed precisely like the first. We approached, he bowed politely, 
opened the door and announced our names. As we entered. Lord 
Ashburton took us by the hand with great cordiality, and introduced 
us to the few guests present. So the form continued until all were 
present, some thirty Senators, the President, his Cabinet, and the for- 
eign Ministers. 

I felt some curiosity of course, to see how the dinner of a British 
lord, with such distinguished guests would pass ofi". I soon perceived 
that Lord Ashburton had uncommon social powers. Every body was 
made quite at home. His manners were so free and easy, his conver- 
sational powers so fine, the notice he took of all his guests so pleasant, 
his dress so plain, much more so than his servants, that I never saw a 
party enjoy themselves better. Lord Ashburton was about five feet 
ten in hight, heavy made, about the size of Mr. Webster, black hair, 
dark eyes, heavy brows, large head, broad, high forehead, fine features, 
open free countenance. He was evidently a man of a very high order 
of talents, and I may say with entire confidence that no other foreign 
Minister ever impressed himself more favorably upon the American 
mind. Mr. Mildmay was slim, with a light complexion, blue 03- es, 
pleasant spoken and gentlemanly. Mr. Bruce was of the Home De- 
partment, fleshy, black hair, eyes and whiskers. He was a very inter- 
esting gentleman, and with his high conversational powers contributed 
much to the entertainment. Mr. Stepping, the last of the legation, 
was small, fair complexion, and light, laughing eyes. His countenance 
looked like fun lit up. He could keep the table in a roar. 



FOX AND ASHBUETON. 365 

Nine o'clock had come. One of the gentlemen servants passed 
around with a cup of pure Mocha coifee to stay us for dinner. The 
hum of conversation filled the long room for another hour. The clock 
struck ten. The folding-doors were thrown open. Lord Ashburton 
led to the table and took his seat at the center of the right side as we 
entered. Mr. Bruce took his seat directly opposite, Mr. Mildmay took 
the head, and Mr. Stepping the lower end of the table. I had the 
honor of a seat at the left hand of his Lordship, while Mr. Webster 
was seated at his right. The servants, or rather waiters, dressed as I 
have described, were stationed back of the chairs — the chief at the 
head of the table. I heard not a word among them during the repast, 
all went only by motions, silently, like clock-work. Turtle-soup, about 
a spoonful, the first course. The whole service was silver. I saw no 
gold plate, that evening. I was struck with the courtesy between the 
waiters and Lord Ashburton. A waiter approached with a charlotte 
rwsse, "Will your Lordship be helped?" "No, I thank you, sir.' 
We went through twelve changes at the table ; dinner lasted two hours 
we rose and retired to the drawing-room. The clock struck twelve', 
the waiter entered with strong Mocha cofiiee. We drank a parting cup 
took leave of the British Minister and the members of his legation 
impressed with the truth that great men are always found to be plain 
gentlemen. I visited Lord Ashburton on another evening, at his invi- 
tation, which I may notice before these sketches close. 



366 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



DOUGLASS MAGUIRE. 

Among the early and prominent settlers at Indianapolis, from Ken- 
tucky, was the subject of this sketch. He was long my near neighbor 
and friend. I called at his door this morning, and learned from his 
son that the doctor had advised his friends not to visit his room ; that 
he could survive but a few days. Thus pass away the enterprising 
pioneers of the State. We have had but few more useful men than 
Douglass Maguire. He has filled many important offices in the State, 
to the entire satisfaction of the people. He was one of the most con- 
scientious men I ever knew ; strictly honest in every sense of the word. 
An ardent friend of Henry Clay, personal and political. In person 
he presented a strong resemblance to that distinguished man — tall and 
slim, wide mouth, high forehead, prominent features. His health was 
for years vei-y delicate, but his noble spirit seemed to animate and keep 
up his weak body, until within the last few days. Mr. Maguire was 
a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, from the county 
of Marion. As a delegate he came fully up to the just expectations 
of his friends. Mr. Maguire took a very active part in the business 
of the Convention ; was among the best speakers of the body — plain, 
practical, direct to the question, never wasting his time in circumlocu- 
tion. He will leave a wide void in the society in which he moved at 
the capital. 



WILLIAM J, BROWN. 

Few men of his age, in the West, have filled so many high posi- 
tions as the subject of this sketch, and few were so well known to so 
many. Mr. Brown was a man of untiring industry, and of great 
energy of character. Hg held the high offices of member of the Legis- 
lature, member of Congress, and Assistant Postmaster General. He 
had always at command an inexhaustible fund of wit, humor, and 
interesting anecdote. For many years he was one of the most formid- 
able Democratic public speakers in the State. In person Mr. Brown 
was under the medium hight, of rather delicate constitution, his head 
and shoulders slightly stooping, high, capacious forehead, light brown 
sandy hair, prominent features. Ere he had passed the meridian of 
life he fell a victim to a fital bronchial disease, contracted by exposure 
while discharging the duties of mail-agent, for the Post-Office Depart- 
ment — in which capacity he rendered great and valuable services in 
detecting mail robbers, and having them punished. Mr. Brown was 



I 
I 



HENRY P. COBUKN — JOHN HENDRICKS. 367 

the father of Austin H. Brown, of Indianapoh's, and of Lieut. George 
Brown, of the United States Navy. His body lies in the Indianapolis 
Cemetery. 



HENRY P. COBURN, 

One of the valuable men of early Indiana, was the subject of this 
sketch. I became acquainted with Mr. Coburn in the year 1822, at 
Corydon, where he was Clerk of the Supreme Court. Our intimacy 
grew into friendship in after years, when we had both become citizens 
of Indianapolis. Mr. Coburn was, for many years, clerk of the court, 
one of the most faithful officers in the State. Of all the men I have 
ever known, Mr. Coburn was one of the most conscientious; punc- 
tiliously honest in all things. He took a very active part in the cause 
of education, in carrying into effect the graded system of schools of 
Indianapolis, and was among the best exhibitors at the fairs, of fruits 
from the orchards he had cultivated with his own hands. He was a 
worthy member of the Second Presbyterian Church for years. Mr. 
Coburn stood among the most esteemed citizens of Indianapolis, died 
lamented by all, and lies sleeping in the family vault, in the cemetery 
at Indianapolis. He was the father of John Coburn, of Indianapolis, 
and of Augustus Coburn, of Lake Superior. 



JOHN HENDRICKS. , 

In early days the counties of Decatur and Shelby were in the woods. 
The counties had just been organized ; the first term of the courts were 
about to be held. William W. Wick was president judge. The Court 
met at Greensburgh, in a log building on the north side of the public 
square. The Court and bar stopped with Thomas Hendricks, a brother 
of Gov. William Hendricks. There were few cases on the docket. 
Court lasted only two days, when the judges and lawyers left for 
Shelbyville, where the term was to commence on Thursday of the 
same week. We started in fine spirits from Greensburgh, after break- 
feast ; the day was cloudy, dark, and drizzling ; there was no road cut 
out then between Greensburgh and Shelbyville ; there were neighbor- 
hood paths, only, in the direction between them. Judge Wick rode 
a spirited animal, and at once took the lead. Away we went, at a 
rapid traveling gait ; all at once the judge stopped at a little log cabin, 
at the forks of the paths, upon the gate-post of which hung a rough 



368 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

board, witli the word '' Whisky " marked upon it with chalk. The 
judge hallooed at the top of his voice, the door opened, and out came 
the woman of the cabin. The Judge. — " Have you got any whisky?" 
" Yes, plenty ; but we have no license to sell, and we will be prose- 
cuted if we sell by the small. You can have a gallon." " A gallon ! 
I don't want a gallon ; a tincupful, with some sugar, will do." " You 
can't have it." " Fetch it out. I am the president judge of the Cir- 
cuit Court, and this is Mr. Smith. He can quash any indictment these 
woods' prosecuting attorneys can find against you. Fetch it out, there 
is no danger of prosecution." Thus assured the old woman returned, 
brought out the whisky and sugar ; the Judge took the lion's part, and 
on he went, but took the path that led to Brookville, instead of the 
one to Shelbyville. We all followed, but soon becoming aware that 
we were on the wrong road, we turned, came back to the whisky board, 
struck the Shelbyville trace, and just at night rode up to the residence, 
in the woods, of Col. John Hendricks, near Shelbyville. The Colonel 
received us with a hearty welcome, turned our horses out in his pas- 
ture-field, and we all walked over to town, about half a mile. 

There were some three or four houses in Shelbyville ; only one 
public house in the place, kept by a man of the name of Williams. 
Next day court was held, some four or five cases for selling whisky 
without license were tried, and the Court adjourned. Col. John 
Hendricks was a younger brother of Gov. William Hendricks. He 
was one of the finest looking; men in the State — six feet hi"h, as 
straight as a rifle barrel, well built up, head large and erect, high 
forehead, hair dark and thrown back in front, good features, eyes 
light blue, sparkling and intelligent; he was a noble specimen of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. The Hendricks family were early settlers of the 
State, from one of the central valleys of Pennsylvania ; were all fine- 
looking men, in character hospitable, noble, magnanimous, and gener- 
ous — and none of them more so than the subject of this sketch. I 
have known him long, and among all my acquaintances, I know of no 
man possessing a higher sense of honor, or a greater degree of high- 
toned moral and religious integrity. I saw him on yesterday, still 
erect, with hair as white as the drifted snow, his step firm, his coun- 
tenance wearing the smile of former years. May he live long to enjoy 
a green old age. He is the father of Thomas A. Hendricks, Com 
missioner of the General Land Oflice. 



WILLIAM HEROD — MICHAEL G. BRIGHT. 369 



WILLIAM HEROD. 

For years the subject of this sketch, William Herod, of Columbus, 
stood among the prominent men of the State, a leading member of the 
Senate, an active Member of Congress from the Indianapolis district. 
I knew him well, both in the State Senate and in Congress. Mr. 
Herod was a good, but not a brilliant speaker ; rather a plain matter- 
of-fact, common-sense man. He stood well at the bar, and very fair 
in Congress ; he made no attempts at eloquence, but confined himself 
to the question he was discussing. Mr. Herod is still living ; he is 
above the ordinary size, well made, large, round head, dark hair and 
eyes, good features. When last I saw him he looked as if he had 
many years before him. May he live to enjoy them. 



MICHAEL G. BRIGHT. 

The subject of this sketch, has long been numbered among the promi- 
nent men of Indiana. Self made, with only an ordinary common Eng- 
lish education, obtained far from seminaries and colleges, he has risen,, 
by his own native energy of character, to a high position at the bar, 
and in the political circles in which he moves. He is a warm Demo- 
crat. The great characteristic of Mr. Bright is energy. He never 
stands still, he never tires, possessed of a strong, vigorous, common- 
sense intellect, great physical force, and incessant application, he is 
always formidable. As a speaker he is plain, direct, clear, emphatic, 
forcible, interesting and effective. In person Michael G. Bright is 
above the common size, strongly built up, large head, broad forehead, 
full face, dark hair and eyes. Mr. Bright was an active, valuable mem- 
ber of our last Constitutional Convention, and contributed largely to 
the formation of our present constitution. I have selected from the 
Debates an extract from one of his speeches, to let the reader see his 
style ; he is now in the bloom of life, in fine health. 

" Every member of the community holds his property, whether real 
or personal, subject to the rights and requirements of the State. It is a 
duty which the State owes to herself and to all the members who com- 
pose it, to maintain its sovereignty and its authority inviolate. It is 
a right inherent in sovereignty to take private property for public use 
without compensation being first made. The State is amenable to no one 
save to a sense of right. Although this right of the State to condemn 
private property for public uses is undoubted, yet we provide that com- 
pensation shall be made, but not when to be made. And this is a point 
* 24 



370 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

to whicli I invite the attention of gentlemen. The old constitution does 
not provide a time when this compensation is to be made by the State, 
and now shall we so frame this organic law that a jury shall be impan- 
neled, and damages assessed and compensation tendered, before the 
proi^erty can be taken, and must the public interest suffer? Why the 
case put by the gentleman from Tippecanoe is a strong one. Suppose 
the State involved in war, an invading army is marching upon our 
frontiers ; the public sei-vice is in pressing need of horses or cattle, or 
perhaps of stone and timber for the construction of fortifications ; must 
the State wait until a jury has assembled and assessed the damages 
to the owner for the taking of this property ; surely we have no pre- 
cedents of individual hardships suifcred through the neglect of the 
State to make ample remuneration for private property condemned for 
public uses, that we should go to the other extreme and engraft a pro- 
vision like this upon the new constitution. I undertake to say, that 
in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, where private property is taken, 
the owner receives more than a fair and just compensation. But be 
this as it may, no instance can be found, where compensation has not 
been made accoi'ding to law. The State was never so poor, involved 
as she has been, in embarrassment and debt, that she could not pay 
every dollar of compensation awarded as damages for the conversion 
of private property to public uses. It is of comparatively small mo- 
ment to the citizen, whether this compensation is made now, or at 
another time, before or after the property is taken ; but, it is of great 
consequence to the State, that the progress of her public works should 
not be retarded a day." 



ROBERT DALE OWEN. 

The name of Kobert Dale Owen is associated with much of the his- 
tory of modern Indiana. He is a son of Robert Owen of Scotland, the 
founder of the Social Community at New Harmony, Indiana. Robert 
Owen left behind him two sons, when he returned to his native coun- 
try. Robert Dale the subject of this sketch, and David Dale, the dis- 
tinguished Geologist of the West. Robert Dale Owen is small in 
statui-e, large high forehead, light hair and eyes, prominent features of 
the Scottish cast. His mind strong, comprehensive and vigorous, 
highly improved by education and reading. He had been for years a 
prominent member of the Legislature of our State, and an active mem- 
ber of Congress from his district, when he was returned a delegate to 
the Convention of 1850 to form our State Constitution. It was there 
that his powers were fully developed to the people of Indiana. The 



"rights of married women." 371 

published volumes of debates of the Convention are filled with his views 
upon the important questions that arose in the construction of the 
organic law of the State. Mr. Owen however threw his main strength 
upon the question of the rights of married women. I have therefore 
selected from his speeches in convention, an extract from the one on 
that subject. He is now the representative of the Government at the 
Court of the two Sicilies, in the meridian of life. 

" RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN." 

" I CONFESS to my anxiety regarding the fate of the sections that 
have just been read. No subject of greater importance than that to 
which they refer has come up since we met here. No subject of greater 
importance will engage our attention till we close our labors and go 
hence. As in estimation, next to the right of enjoying life and liberty 
our Constitution enumerates the right of acquiring, possessing, pro- 
tecting property. And these sections refer to the latter right hereto- 
fore declared to be natural, inherent, inalienable, yet virtually withheld 
from one half the citizens of our State. 

" Women are not represented in our legislative halls — they have no 
voice in selecting those who make laws and constitutions for them. 
There may be good reasons for that. I enter not on the inquiry. 
One reason often given for excluding women from the right of suf- 
frage, is an expression of confident belief that their husbands and 
fathers will surely guard their interests, and see fair justice meted out 
to these, the special objects of their care. 

" I should like to have a little more confidence in this opinion than 
experience has given me. I should like, for the honor of my sex, to 
believe that the legal rights of woman are, at all times, as zealously 
guarded as they would be if women had votes to give to those who 
watch over their interests, and to withhold from those who pass by 
and neglect them. I impute to no gentleman the deliberate intention 
to render less than justice to the other sex, merely because they have 
not the right of suifrage. I but say that self-interest is a marvelous 
sharpener of the wits, and causes us to think of, and enables us 
to discover many things, which, without its quickening influence, 
might escape our observation. But let us turn to thg question more 
immediately before us. Let us pass from the case of the widow and 
look to that of the wife ; and let us inquire whether the interests of 
the one are better cared for by law than those of the other. The old 
doctrine of the common law, that the legal existence of the woman 
is suspended during the marriage — the same doctrine that has existed 
for centuries in England — still substantially regulates, in a majority 



372 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

of the States, the relation of husband and wife, as to property in a 
general way. The legal effect of marriage is : 

^^First. The husband becomes entitled, from the instant of the mar- 
riage, to all the goods and chattels of the wife. His right is absolute, 
unconditional. He may sell every part of the wife's personal prop- 
erty, whether owned by her before marriage, or coming to her after 
marriage, except only her necessary apparel. A married woman can 
not, therefore, legally sell the smallest article of personal property ; 
she can not legally give away the most trifling trinket, no matter 
whether it was inherited, or the produce even of her own labor. A 
farmer's wife can not, in her own right, sell the poultry she has raised, 
or the butter she has made, even if a husband neglect to provide for 
his children, and the wife, by her labor, support them, the produce of 
her labor is his. Say that he has squandered what money he had in 
dissipation ; and that, in the meantime, his wife, faithful to her home 
duties, has contrived, by constant labor as a seamstress, perhaps, or a 
washerwoman, to supply his place. Suppose that she has laid by in 
her trunk, — the same trunk, perhaps, in which her mother had packed, 
with careful hands, on her daughter's marriage day, the little property 
she had to give her, — suppose that the wife had laid by in that trunk 
a few dollars, hardly and bitterly earned, saved with difficulty as a 
scanty fund, to furnish clothing for her children against the inclem- 
ency of the winter. And suppose (alas! how often is the case a real 
one), suppose that the drunken husband comes home in the evening, 
breaks open the trunk and carries off the money ; is that larceny ? 
Has he stolen ? By no means. He broke open his own trunk ; he 
took — so the law declares — his own money. ^ * >i< But in secur- 
ing to married women rights of property, we must bear in mind that 
those rights bring with them duties. The laws of New York, Wis- 
consin, and other States, seem to have been framed in forgetfulness of 
this ; but the civil law admits and provides for it — requiring that the 
wife shall bear a portion of the marriage expenses. This proportion 
varies according to the necessity of the case and the means of the 
wife. To meet this the constitutional provision should declare that 
the property of married women shall be declared to them, under equit- 
able conditions. It is for the law afterward to determine, in detail 
what these conditions shall be." 



JESSE D. BEIGHT. 373 

JESSE D. BRIGHT. 

The reader at this day must be familiar with the subject of this 
sketch. Jesse D. Bright is emphatically a self-made man. In 
despite of the obstacles he has had to encounter for the want of an 
early education, he has, by the force of his native powers, risen step 
by step, from obscurity to the high position of the President of the 
Senate of the United States. In person he is large and muscular, a 
sti-ong physical formation, full breast, large expanded chest, full face, 
large square forehead, hair and eyes dark, five feet ten in hight, 
mouth wide, head large. Mr. Bright possesses great energy of char- 
acter, with good common sense, and an iron will, giving a strong 
impetus to his movements. Nature has done much for him, and he 
has done much for himself. He stands, perhaps, first among the 
leaders of the Democratic party in the States. It is understood that 
he was offered and declined a seat in the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan. 
As a speaker, Mr. Bright is strong, loud, forcible, impulsive, some- 
times eloquent ; his forte, however, is in dealing with facts, and pre- 
senting them in a strong, common-sense point of view to his hearers. 
He always commands attention, by his earnest manner and strono- 
array of facts. 

I have already said, in these sketches, that I have no political ends 
to serve, and entirely exclude politics from them. My great object is 
to be faithful to the truth of facts and of history, for after times as 
well as the present. Mr. Bright has been rather a business than a 
speaking member of the Senate. He is now in fine health, scarcely 
having reached the meridian of life. 



374 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 



HENRY CLAY. 

No iiAN in the United States, since the days of Gen. Washington, 
has filled a larger space in the public mind than Henry Clay. From 
the mill-boy of the slashes of Virginia, he rose, by the force of his 
great native powers and his untiring energy, to fill the civilized world 
wifh his fame. From my earliest recollections of the prominent men 
of the nation, the name of Henry Clay has been familiar. I read of 
him in 1812, while at the head of the great Republican party, leading 
the friends of the administration of Mr. Madison, in support of the 
war with Great Britain : I had noticed him in 1816 still leading the 
Republican party in support of a sound national currency, and the 
protection of American industry : I had marked him at the treaty of 
Ghent, as one of the leading spirits in restoring, by treaty, an honor- 
able peace between Great Britain and the United States : I had read 
his speeches ; — when, for the first time, I saw him on the fourth day of 
July, in the year 1817, on the public square at Lexington, Ky. The 
next day, I heard him argue a case before the jury, in opposition to 
Mr. Breckenridge. He was then comparatively a young man, tall, 
slim, light hair, high retreating forehead, large wide mouth, promi- 
nent features, narrow chest, long neck, head erect, step elastic, intelli- 
gent grey eye, smiling countenance, warm grasp of the hand. I was 
introduced to him, and from that day forward to his death, I was one 
of his devoted personal and political friends. It was not, however, 
until March, 1837, when we met in the Senate of the United States, 
that I became personally intimate with Mr. Clay. Our position was 
such, as meml^ers of the Whig party, as to bring us much together, 
not only in open Senate, but in the executive sessions and Whig 
caucuses, where he spoke freely, with no possible restraints upon him. 
I can truly declare that I never heard a word from him inconsistent 
with true patriotism and love of country ; his very soul seemed 
attuned to lofty strains of patriotic devotion to our glorious Union 
and love for the American people. 

In my sketch pf Gen. Jackson and Henry Clay, I have given to 
the reader the characteristics of the mind of both these great men. 
As an orator, Mr. Clay stood pre-eminent among the distinguished 
men of the Senate. There was a strong infusion of declamation in 
his style, that gave to his speeches a charm of delivery, which no 
other man could imitate. His manner was always suited to the 
subject. He was aware that true eloquence is the child of knowledge. 
He asked me one day, while Mr. Webster was speaking, in what 
greatness consisted. I tried to answer him. He interrupted me: 



HENRY CLAY. 375 

"In preparation. No speaker was ever great without preparation. I 
seem to speak oiF-liand, so does Mr. Webster ; yet we both speak with 
preparation, and never without it on important subjects." At times 
Mr. Clay was very uncommon ; then his voice would raise, his eye 
flash, his cheeks color, his system become animated, and he would 
pour forth a flood of impassioned, high-toned eloquence that would 
hold the audience spell-bound. 

I was present during the memorable intellectual contests in the 
Senate, of Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Calhoun, known as the 
" war of the giants." I had every opportunity of seeing and hearing 
these great men in the warmth of the excited debates of the session. 
Mr. Clay always rose with the occasion, and came fully up to the 
high expectations of his friends. He possessed great moral and per- 
sonal courage, and never, for one moiuent, rested under what seemed 
to him to be unjust personal allusions, or imputations. On one occa- 
sion Mr. Webster alluded to the absence of Mr. Clay on the passage 
of Grcn. Jackson's force bill, against Mr. Calhoun. Mr. Clay, with 
evident feeling, rose, and fixing his eyes on Mr. Webster, said : "It is 
ti-ue, Mr. President, I was arguing a case in the Supreme Court when 
that bill passed. Had I been here I should probably have voted for 
it ; but sir," glancing fire at Mr. Webster, who had made a speech in 
favor of it, " no new-born zeal could have induced me to be seen 
standing on this floor making speeches for that administration." Mr. 
Webster evidently quailed under the stern, defiant rebuke of Mr. Clay. 

At another time, William R. King had repeated some severe 
remarks he had heard from others against Mr. Clay. The moment 
Mr. King took his seat, Mr. Clay rose, addressed the president, and 
in a loud, firm voice, said : " I pronounce the statement of the Sen- 
ator from Alabama false." Mr. King sprang to his feet. " Mr. Presi- 
dent, the Senator from Kentucky," and without proceeding further, 
took his seat, and immediately wrote a note, and handed it to Senator 
Lewis F. Linn, who stepped across to Mr. Clay, just as the Senate 
adjourned. I happened at the moment to be standing by the side of 
Mr. Clay. As Mr. Linn approached Mr. Clay remarked : "Ah ! a 
challenge. I presume. My friend, Mr. Archer, will attend to that," 
and passed out of the side door of the Senate chamber. The result 
was, that the remark of Mr. Clay was construed to mean, that the 
information Mr. King had received was false, not thaf^Ir. King had 
stated a falsehood ; such was Mr. Clay's own version of the matter. 
The challenge was withdrawn, and Mr. Clay and Mr. King continued 
friends while both lived. 

Mr. Clay evidently felt himself entitled to be the leader of the 



376 EAELY INDIAXA TKIALS. 

Whig party ; the measures of the party were his measures, the cur- 
rency question, the protection of American industry, the distribution 
of the proceeds of the public lands among the States ; these were his 
measures, and he felt, as did many of his friends, that he ought to 
have been elected to represent them. Mr. Clay never fully acquiesced 
in the result of the Whig convention that nominated Gen. Harrison 
in 1840, nor of the subsequent nomination of Gen. Taylor. He said 
to me that they were sacrifices of the Whig party to a supposed avail- 
ability ; still, after the election of Gen. Harrison, no man in the 
nation was more warmly the friend of his administration. He often 
conversed with me about his political life, and especially in relation to 
his vote for Mr. Adams, in the House of Representatives, for Presi- 
dent, over Gen. Jackson. He spoke with feeling of the influence of 
that vote, of his taking office under Mr. Adams, and upon his subse- 
quent political life. We were alone one evening in his room, when 
h-e brought up the subject, and remarked : " In voting for Mr. Adams 
I followed my own matured and deliberate judgment. I believed, all 
things considered, he would make the best President; his great 
experience, pure life, high character, thorough acquaintance with our 
foreign relations, pointed him out as the man for the times. I was 
not mistaken in him ; he made a first-rate President. In accepting 
the office of Secretary of State under him, I acted upon the advice of 
others and against my own wishes. The political consequences to 
myself never weighed a feather, it was solely a question of duty to 
the country. Mr. Adams was taken from New England. I had 
voted for him. The West required a member in the Cabinet. The 
eye of both parties was turned to me. I was solicited, urged by dis- 
tinguished men of both parties to take the position, for the benefit of 
the country. I yielded, and the moment I had taken the office, the 
cry of bargain, intrigue, and management, between Mr. Adams and 
myself, was raised by the very men opposed to me, who had urged me 
to take the office. A partisan press seized upon the charge, connect- 
ed it with the infamous Kreemer cards, every word of which was 
false, so far as it charged bargain and corruption, or improper motives 
between Mr. Adams and myself; and although it has been refuted 
again and again, I suppose it will follow me to my grave, Mr. Smith, 
My conscience is clear, and that is worth a thousand times more to 
me than the applause of the world unjustly obtained." Mr. Clay was 
greatly rejoiced at the success of the Whig party in 1840. He looked 
upon the result as the triumph of his long cherished measures, and 
when the extra session commenced, after the decease of General Har- 
rison, and the accession of Mr. Tyler to the Presidency, he boldly 



HENRY CLAY. 377 

laid down the measures of tlie party for tlie action of the members of 
the party. This was called by some dictation. It was no more so 
than the messages of the President to Congress ; it was merely sug- 
gestive and advisory. 

No man ever felt more keenly, than did Mr. Clay the desertion of 
Mr. Tyler ; he had set his heart upon the party measures to be carried 
into effect at the extra session, which had been called by Gen. Har- 
rison a few days before his death. He had entire confidence in IMr. 
Tyler and his Cabinet, as he frequently expressed himself to me in 
our conversations. Mr. Clay was the fast friend of the American 
policy, the internal improvement of the country, within the powers of 
the Constitution. He denied the salt water doctrine on the subject, 
that all improvements must be made in aid of commerce, upon the 
seas and lakes, or below ports of entry. He maintained that it was 
Constitutional to protect the industry of the American people, by 
levying duties upon importations of like kinds of foreign articles, if 
necessary, whether for revenue or not. He maintained this doctrine, 
as necessary and proper in self-defense, against foreign restrictions. 
He insisted that by protecting our home industry we would have a 
home market, and would keep our specie at home, as a circulating 
medium, instead of sending it abroad to pay for foreign luxuries, 
breaking our banks, and impoverishing our people. Mr. Clay was a 
warm friend of a National Bank. He did not believe that we could 
do the business of the country^ with a metallic circulation alone, nor 
that the local banks could be confided in, for a sound circulating 
medium, of uniform value. His model bank was the old Bank of the 
United States, chartered by Congress. He always regretted that the 
Bank of Pennsylvania was called the United States Bank, as the 
identity of name misled the public ; the one had discharged the 
duties of a bank of issue, discount and deposit, for the Government 
and people ; had received and transmitted the funds of the Govern- 
ment over the length and breadth of the Treasury requirements with- 
out charge, and without loss; had paid every dollar of deposits, 
redeemed all its issues with specie, without the loss of a dollar to the 
Government or people ; had afforded a circulating medium of par 
value co-extensive with the metallic bases. Such was the bank that 
found favor with Mr. Clay and the Whig party : the Bank of the 
United States, of Pennsylvania, of which Mr. Biddle was president, 
was brought forth in fraud, sunk under the weight of its own iniquity, 
and wound up in bankruptcy. This bank neither Mr. Clay, nor any 
of his party, sustained for a moment. 

I have sketched under the head of John Tyler, some of the causes 



378 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

that produced the final party catastrophe, in the separation of the 
executive department of Mr. Tyler from the great body of the Whig 
party. The Whig manifesto, on that occasion, by which Mr. Tyler 
was declared no longer to be worthy to be associated with the Whig 
party that had elected him, was highly approved by Mr. Clay, as was 
the resignation of the Cabinet of Mr. Tyler. He told me at the time 
that no honorable man could remain associated with Mr. Tyler, with- 
out incurring a portion of his disgrace. I remarked, " What then 
will become of Mr. Webster, who stays with Mr. Tyler." " Mr. Web- 
ster has a large capital to go upon ; his friends will believe that he 
has excusable motives to keep him there; the treaty with Lord Ash- 
burton will be good apology, but Mr. Webster will not be able to 
remain there long without becoming Tylerized himself." And so it 
turned out, Mr. Webster resigned and Mr. Calhoun took his place. 

Mr. Clay had concluded to resign his seat in the Senate, and retire 
for the balance of his days to his own Ashland : the day of the resig- 
nation was fixed, at which he would deliver his f;jrewell address to the 
Senate. The day arrived, before the hour the Senators were all in 
their seats, the aisles, side seats and galleries crowded. The time had 
come, Mr. Clay rose from his seat, on the outside circle, near the 
south-east end, calmly, and without even his usual gestures, delivered 
a most thrilling and affecting farewell address to the body, taking 
leave of the Senate, and of public life forever. The immense 
audience were as silent as death, many manly cheeks were suffused 
with tears. Mr. Clay took his seat, Senators from all parts of the 
chamber, without regard to politics, gathered around him, and for the 
last time grasped his extended hand. Thus retired from the service 
of his country, one- of her noble patriots, after having devoted his 
long and valuable life at home and abroad, to sustain her honor and 
promote her glory, breathing with his parting words nothing but 
kindness to all the Senators with whom he had been so long associated, 
— " May the blessings of Heaven rest upon the heads of the whole 
Senate, and every member of it ; and may every member of it advance 
still more in favor, and when they shall retire to the bosom of their 
respective constituencies, may they all meet there that most joyous 
and grateful of all human rewards, the exclamation of their country- 
men, ' Well done, thou good and faithful servant.' Mr. President 
and Messrs. Senators, I bid you, one and all, a long, a last, a friend- 
ly farewell." A few years after the coffin that contained the remnins 
of Henry Clay was seen silently and solemnly m-oving from the Na- 
tional Hotel at Washington city, on its way to his own Kentucky, that 
he loved so well ; where he now sleeps. Peace to his Manes. 



HENKY S. LANE. 379 



HENRY S. LANE. 

Long before the campaign of 1840, the subject of this sketch had 
become distinguished among the first men in the State of Indiana, both 
as a lawyer and statesman. In that campaign, however, he rose still 
higher as a public speaker. Mr. Lane served his county in the State 
Legislature, and afterward his district in Congress, with signal ability. 
His mind was of a high order, and his eloquence of the nervous, 
direct, impassioned character. He held his audience spell^bound by 
his powers. His speeches were always too short for his hearers, 
although often too long for his voice, which was never strong. He 
was always listened to with great attention, and impressed himself 
strongly upon his audience. 

Mr. Lane was a warm, devoted friend of Henry Clay, personal and 
political ; as he was of Gen. Harrison, after he became the standard- 
bearer of the Whig party. No man rendered greater services to his 
party, in the presidential campaigns of 1840, and subsequently, than 
Mr. Lane. He presided over the convention that nominated John 
C. Fremont, as the Republican candidate against Mr. Buchanan. In 
person, Mr. Lane was tall and slim, light hair, gray eyes, large fore- 
head, sunken mouth, thin lips, long arms, slim, long fingers. While 
in Congress he made many characteristic speeches, well remembered 
by those who served with him. Among them, was one in reply to the 
attack of Judge Dean of Ohio, on Gen. Harrison, which I have not 
been able to find. I give, however, an extract from another of his 
Congressional speeches, to show his style and spirit : 

" Mr. Chairman : — I regret very much the necessity which imposes 
upon me the duty of addressing the committee at this time. It is 
known to you and to this House, that I very rarely trespass upon its 
time and attention ; but the very singular character of the debate upon 
this bill, and the magnitude and importance of the subjects embraced 
in it, will, I trust, aff"ord an ample apology for me. The present alarm- 
ing crisis in our financial affairs, is well calculated to fill the mind of 
every true patriot with gloom and apprehension. Our National Treas- 
ury is bankrupt, our national credit and honor prostrate, the States of 
this Union borne to the earth by an enormous load of debt ; the 
people every where cursed with a rotten and vitiated currency, and 
threatened with bankruptcy and ruin ; the annual revenues of the Gov- 
ernment insufficient by many millions of dollars, to meet its ordinary 
expenses under the most rigid system of economy consistent with the 
public interest. Sir, in the present condition of National, State and 
individual embarrassment and distress, let us pause and calmly look 



380 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

back upon tlie liistory of the past, for the causes wliich have produced 
such mighty and disastrous effects. 

" But a few short years ago we had an overflowing Treasury, the best 
currency known to the world — every home was filled with comfort and 
plenty, every heart with joy and gladness. Why is it that your Treas- 
ury is empty ? Why is it that this Congress is now laying the founda- 
tions of a great National Debt? The reasons for the present deficit 
in our revenue are many and obvious ; a few. of which I shall attempt 
to enumerate. It has become a part of the history of the country, 
and is known to the whole world, that Mr. Van Buren's administra- 
tion expended annually about $8,000,000 over and above the annual 
revenues of the nation ; that that administration, after expending a 
large surplus which they found in the Treasury, and after availing 
themselves of every means of revenue within their power, temporary 
and permanent, were hurled from place and power by the people for 
their extravagance, jjrofligacy and corruption, leaving a debt to be dis- 
charged by their successors of about $16,000,000 ; that they, instead 
of laying a tariff of duties sufficiently high to meet the wants of the 
Government and discharge its debts, resorted to the miserable policy 
of issuing Treasury notes, for the double purpose of relieving their 
present wants, and at the same time hoodwinking and deceiving the 
people as to the true condition of the Treasury, and concealing as far 
as they could, the evidence of their waste and extravagance. If the 
party lately in power, had had the wisdom, patriotism and moral cour- 
age to have passed a proper revenue-bill at the proper time, and to 
have curtailed their expenditures within reasonable limits, we should 
not be laboring under those evils which curse and afilict our common 
country. The currency of a country must always be most intimately 
connected with its credit and prosperity. I shall not detain you, Mr. 
Chairman, by going into a history of those measures by which the 
currency was reduced to its present deploi'able condition ; it is enough 
for my present purpose to say, that the Bank of the United States 
furnished the people with a sound currency of uniform value, every 
where conversible into gold and silver; that the people were satisfied 
with their currency ; that the Bank was popular; but Gen. Jackson, 
in the fullness of his power, and in the pride of his overshadowing 
popularity, willed its destruction, and it was destroyed. The Demo- 
cratic party then determined that State banks should furnish the only 
paper currency for the people, and through their instrumentality the 
State bank system was fastened upon the country ; and the evils and 
abuses of that system, have been the fruitful source of countless and 
untold calamities. 



HENKY S. LANE. 381 

" So much, Mr. Chairman, for the agency of our Democratic friends 
in producing the present state of things. Differ as we may, Mr. 
Chairman, as to the causes of our bankruptcy, and utter prostration 
of confidence and credit, the feet at least is undeniable and confessed 
that the Grovernment needs, and the public service imperiously 
demands, all the money provided for in this loan bill. At the extra 
session, we passed a law authorizing a loan of $12,000,000. S5,500, 
000 of that loan was negociated ; the balance, owing to the state of 
the money market and to the terms of the loan, was not negociated. 
The bill now before us proposes to extend the time of the original 
loan, and restricts the Secretary of the Treasury from selling any of 
the bonds issued under this bill at less than par value. The amend- 
ment of the gentleman from Virginia, now under consideration, 
requires the Secretary to redeem those bonds so soon as they shall 
dej^reciate below par in the market. The gentleman doubtless, intends 
by this amendment to keep the bonds from depreciation ; but, Mr. 
Chairman, how can the amendment effect that object? On what basis 
rests private and public, national and individual credit? Upon the 
twofold foundation of the will and ability of the debtor to pay the 
debt. And what evidence, let me ask you, do we give by the proposed 
amendment of our ability to pay this loan ? We anticipate a deprecia- 
tion of our bonds, and legislate with an eye to that event. The amend- 
ment, if adopted, is an open annunciation to the whole world that we 
ourselves distrust our own solvency and our own credit. How that is 
to prevent a depreciation of our stocks passes my ability to comprehend. 

" But, Mr. Chairman, how does this amendment affect the question 
of our willingness to pay ? What will capitalists say of the honesty 
and morality of the amendment? We propose first to sell our bonds 
at par, or to pay them to the creditors of the Government at par, and 
then to authorize and require the Secretary of the Treasury to enter 
the stock market, and compete with brokers, shylocks and shavers, for 
the purchase of our bonds at any rate of discount which they may 
bear. What are the pledges of security which we can give to lenders 
for the payment of our bonds? First, the vast and inexhaustible 
sources of wealth and power contained in our country , and secondly, 
an open, honest and consistent course of legislative action — any 
departure from which must impair rather than strengthen our credit. 
But we are told, that in order to sell our bonds at par, and to retain 
their par value, we must set apart and pledge a specific fund foi their 
payment. Is this necessary? Let the experience of the past answer. 
What security did we give our creditors for the immense debts of the 
Revolution and the last war? What security did we give for the 



382 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

redemption of the vast amount of Treasury notes, we from time to 
time have issued ? The highest security which man can give or ask — 
the plighted faith and honor of this great nation. Yet no specific 
fund was pledged for these debts. But in the very act of borrowing, 
do we not pledge all our means of payment until the obligation is 
discharged? The President in his last message to us, says, that a 
want of confidence is the great evil under which we labor. This is 
true. And before I resume my seat, I shall endeavor to show who it 
is that has inflicted the fatal stab upon the character and credit of the 
nation. Sir, let the President respond to the calls of a suffering 
country ; let him cast off those evil advisers who darken his mind with 
adulation and flattery, and poison his heart with envy and malice ; let 
him carry out faithfully, the principles upon which he was elected ; let 
him return again to his first love ; in a word, let him become an hon- 
est politician — and then, neither he nor the country will have cause 
to complain of the want of public credit. But how is it possible that 
capitalists and foreigners can confide in him in whom no one trusts — 
in him in whom ninety-nine hundreths of the whole nation, place no 
reliance? What! trust in him who has shown himself so unworthy 
of political station — so recreant to all public confidence ! The idea 
is absurd and ridiculous. 

"I now come, Mr. Chairman, to the charges made upon the Whig 
majority in Congress, as well by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Wise) as by the hired and prostituted presses in the interest of the 
Administration, from one extremity of the Republic to the other. 
What are those charges? We are told that the majority in Congress 
factiously oppose every measure and recommendation emanating from 
the President, regardless of the welfare of the country ; that the 
Whigs have detei-mined to pass no measure of relief lest Mr. Tyler 
shall get the credit of it ; that we are deaf to the cry of distress 
which comes up to us from every quarter of the land ; that we are 
legislating with the view and for the object of advancing the interests 
of Mr. Clay, and securing his election to the Presidency ; that we are 
the do-nothing Congress. -Sir, a sense of duty to myself, to my con- 
stituents, to my country, to the cause of truth, justice, and patriotism, 
impels me, upon this occasion, to show the utter groundlessness of 
these charges, and once for all, to disavow the base, groveling, and 
unworthy motives, so unjustly attributed to myself and to those with 
whom r act. I regret alike the charge and the motives which 
prompted it. What has been the course of the Executive since his 
coming into power, and what has been the conduct of the Whig ma- 
jority in Congress? Let us go back to the history of the extra ses- 



HENRY S. LANE. 383 

sion. Mr. Tyler, in liis first message to Congress, liiots most une- 
quivocally that the extra session was no measure of his, and that he 
was opposed to it, and in no wise responsible for its success. He 
speaks in that message of a bank so mysteriously, that almost every 
one who read it put a different construction upon his language. In 
that message he holds the veto power in terrorem over the indepen- 
dent action of Congress. But the Whig party, mindful of the objects 
for which they had been convened, and intent solely upon advancing 
the great interests of the nation, set about the improvement and the 
correction of the disorders of the currency, and the replenishing of 
the Treasury of the nation. Mr. Clay introduced a bank bill in the 
Senate, and it was soon understood that the President was giving out 
his dark hints and innuendoes against the bill. The friends of the 
country became alarmed, and, in order to avert a veto, the celebrated 
compromise section was introduced and passed by the Whig Senators. 
Thus they, for the purpose of conciliation, gave up and abandoned 
their long cherished principles, yielded what they believed to be the 
true construction of the Federal Constitution, and waived what they 
believed to be their undoubted power under the Constitution — the 
right to establish a bank to operate ^ per se all over the Union.' This 
concession, it was understood and believed by all, would satisfy the 
President and secure his sanction to the bill. The Whigs understood 
him as being fully committed to the measure. The bill was passed 
and sent to him for his approval, and he, in the arrogance of his 
nature, in the intoxication of his accidental power, vetoes the meas- 
ure. Why ? Because it bore the impress of the giant intellect and 
lofty patriotism of the great Kentuckian, Henry Clay. In him he 
recognized the fearless champion of truth, the noble advocate of lib- 
erty, the idol of his party, the pride and hope of his country. It was 
enough that the bill originated with Mr. Clay to insure the Presi- 
dent's opposition. 

"Base envy withers at another's joy, 

And hates that excellence it can not reach." 

"Thus we see that the President, impelled by hatred and envy of 
Mr. Clay, and prompted by the restless demon of his unholy ambi- 
tion, defeated that fii'st great measure of relief, proposed and passed 
by a Whig Congress. The Whigs then, although deceived and 
betrayed by their President, and stabbed ' in the house of their 
friends,' were unwilling to adjourn without another effort to carry 
out the great objects for which they had met. Another bank charter 
was proposed, framed expressly with the view of securing his approval, 
and to which his sanction, after a full and explicit knowledge of all 



384 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

its provisions, was most unequivocally pledged, not only to liis Cabi- 
net, but to members of this House and of the Senate. That bill was 
also vetoed by the President, thereby fixing upon his character the 
double stain of hypocrisy and treachery ! In view of all these facts, 
I ask the country to decide who has defeated all measures of relief, 
the Whig Congress or the President ? After the last veto, five out 
of six of his Cabinet advisers, feeling that a longer association with 
him could add nothing to the interests of the nation, or to their own 
personal character — that ' his touch was pollution, his contact death ' 
— abandoned him; and notwithstanding all the persecution, and 
all the calumny which has been heaped upon that retiring Cabinet, 
they, by that retirement, gave an instance of lofty, devoted, and self- 
sacrificing patriotism, unsurpassed in the annals of man. One mem- 
ber of that Cabinet is soon to take his seat as a Senator from the 
proud and patriotic State of his nativity ; another most worthily and 
ably represents a portion of the Empire State upon the floor of this 
House. They all were followed into retirement by the gratitude and 
blessings of thousands ; their tombs in after times shall be shrines for 
the pilgrimage of freedom's votaries, and upon their graves the future 
patriot shall relume the dying flame of liberty. Sir, who would not 
rather be one of that persecuted Cabinet than to play the automaton 
part of the present accidental head of the nation ? The gentleman 
from Virginia says that, at the close of the extra session, the Whigs — 
as he styles them, the manifesto Whigs — declared war upon the Presi- 
dent ; that the thirteen Whigs who prepared and signed that address 
were usurpers, by assuming to act for the whole Whig party in Con- 
gress, when, in fact, a majority dissented from the doctrines of that 
address, and that many Whigs now are sorry for their agency in rela- 
tion to that address. Sir, it is time that the counti*y should know the 
facts in relation to the getting up of that address. At the meeting 
which determined upon that manifesto, between ninety and one hun- 
dred Whig members of Congress attended ; and if there was opposi- 
tion to or dissent from the facts stated in the address, surely I did not 
hear it, nor can I believe that it existed. And if there be one Whig 
upon this floor who attended that meeting, who disapproves what was 
there done, I ask, demand, defy him to get up now and proclaim his 
dissent and his recreancy. No one rises. Then I am to infer that 
no such person exists ; and I hope that we shall hear no more of the 
charge of usurpation against the committee Avhose names are signed 
to that noble Whig document. Sir, I have thus briefly glanced at the 
history of the extra session. And does any thing in that history go 
to show that the Whigs were actuated by a spirit of factious opposi- 



HENRY S. LANE. 385 

tion to the President ? Who are they who, pretending to be Whigs 
and friends of the President, have thwarted every Executive recom- 
mendation and every measure of relief to the country ? The gentle- 
man from Virginia and his friends and allies of the guard. 

" Sir, in view of the evils and calamities brought upon the country 
by the President, may not the patriot from his heart of hearts invoke 
the poet s curse upon him ? — 

'Oh for a tongue to curse the slave, 

Whose treason, like a deadly blight, 
Comes o'er the counsels of the brave, 

And blasts them in their hour of night ! ' 

" So much I have thought it necessary to say of the President and 
his official conduct. I now pass to the consideration of other matters 
connected with the honor and independence of Congress. We are told 
by a gentleman in the city of New York, in an address to a meeting 
of merchants, brokers, and bankers of that city, gotten up for the 
purpose of glorifying Mr. Tyler's administration, and heaping abuse 
upon a Whig Congress, among other things, 'that beggars should 
not be choosers; that we can get nothing else, and therefore v\'e must 
take whatever Mr. Tyler is pleased to give us ! ' Sir, is there any 
member upon this floor, of any party, who can listen to this language 
with other than feelings of deep and burning indignation? Beggars, 
forsooth! Who are beggars? The People and the People's repre- 
sentatives — the American Congress! And of whom shall they beg? 
Of John Tyler, into whose nostrils the Whigs breathed the breath of 
political vitality — of him whose treachery has ruined the party who 
placed him in power, and blighted and blasted the prosperity of the 
nation for long, long years to come ! 

" What is the American Congress that it should be thus degraded ? 
Who gave force, efficiency, and impulse to that mighty, moral, intellect- 
ual, and political revolution which freed this country, and shook to their 
center the hereditary thrones of Europe's despots? An American 
Congress. AVho devised means for paying off the immense debt of the 
Revolution ? An American Congress. Who, when our national exis- 
tence was threatened, our honor invaded, our seamen impressed, our 
flag insulted, grappled successfully with the first power in the world — 
Napoleon's conqueror? An American Congress. Who devised those 
beneficent measures, the good effects of which every where beautify 
and adorn our country ? An American Congress. To what point has 
the patriot turned his eye in every dark period in our national exis- 
tence? To the people's representatives, who stand erect in the con- 
sciousness of their honor, their power, and their patriotism, above the 
25 



38Q EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

blandisliinents of flattery, unallurecl by the liope of gain, unsedueed 
by the dreams of ambition, unawed by tlie frowns of power. We are 
told bere, and tbe charge is repeated in every hired press from Maine 
to New Orleans, that we are determined to do nothing — that this is 
the do-nothing Congress. Why this effort to disparage Congress, and 
throw the odium of failure of every measure upon tbe body ? The 
reason is apparent — they seek to divert public attention from their own 
conduct, and to direct it to Congress. But they shall not escape in 
that way ; the People shall be the judges between us. The People 
will, when they understand the facts, determine who have adhered to 
their principles through every change, ' through evil as well as through 
good report,' and who have basely abandoned their party, their prin- 
ciples, their country. Mr. Tyler's friends in their great devotion to 
their great chief, have compared him to Napoleon. ' Ye gods and 
little fishes ! ' John Tyler and Napoleon Bonaparte ! 

" Mr. Chairman, is it not surprising that, in casting about for some 
one to compare their great leader to, the fame of one of Philadelphia's 
great military men should have escaped their memory — I mean the 
immortal Col. Pluck? He, with his bantam feather, his tin sword 
and his bullet buttons, surely resembles their idol as much as their idol 
resembles the hero of Austerlitz, Jena, and Lodi's bridge. And Mr. 
Chairman, is it not wondrous strange that they have overlooked the 
claims of one of Shakspeare's commanders — I mean Col. John Fal- 
staff? Can you not recognize the resemblance between him and their 
chieftain? You remember Falstalf's regiment of ragged recruits. Who 
are Mr. Tyler's recruits ? Office-holders, office-seekers. Government 
contractors, hired editors, and those who are called ' the guard ' upon this 
floor. Falstaff" was ashamed to march through town with his regiment ; 
it remains to be seen whether Mr. Tyler has an equal sense of shame. 

"But again : We are told by gentlemen that, if the President and his 
Cabinet can not get good laws passed, they will at least recommend 
good measures, and present good issxies to the country ! Before I stop 
to inquire what good measures the Cabinet have recommended, let us 
inquire what their recommendation is wovth ? What importance let 
me ask, can be attached to the recommendation of the Secretary of 
State — Mr. Webster? What was his conduct at a time when this 
country was engaged in a war with England ? I refer to his votes, 
from an inspection of the journals of this House. I have had but little 
time to devote to their examination, but am satisfied with the correct- 
ness of my references. July 1, 1813, he voted against a bill for asses- 
sing and collecting taxes to sustain the war. July 9th he voted against 
laying a tax on refined sugar and sales at auction — a measure intended 



HENKY S. LANE. 387 

to raise revenue. July 7tli, 1814, against a bill to sustain the Navy. 
The 11th of the same month, against a bill which, among other things 
provided for punishing spies. The 22d of January, he voted against 
a bill to enlist troops during the war, in a minority of seven. On the 
25th of January, 1814, against the nonimportation law. February 8, 
1814, against raising five regiments. March 29, against calling out 
the militia to repel invasion. December 1st, against providing reve- 
nue for sustaining the public credit. Decamber 10th, against calling 
on the States for their quotas of militia to defend the frontiers. On the 
19th of December, against a bill to provide for the expenses of the war. 
He also voted against a bill to provide for rebuilding the Capitol, after it 
was burned by the British. Sir, I leave the record of these votes with- 
out comment, and pass to Mr. Webster's present position. But, if it 
is asked why I have not brought Mr. Webster's votes up in judgment 
before this time, my answer is. that after the war. for a long period of 
time, Mr. Webster seemed devoted to the best interests of the country, 
and I in common with hundreds of others, hoped and believed that he 
had repented of his former errors, and changed his opinions and prin- 
ciples ; but his recent conduct has proved to me that he remains 
unchanged, and that his seeming change of course, was only affecta- 
tion. He was appointed to office by Gen. Harrison, and when the 
other members of the Cabinet resigned their stations with scorn and 
disgust, Mr. Webster loved his office better than his country — his 
emoluments more than honor. That Mr. Webster is a naan of great 
intellect and transcendent abilities no one will deny.; but what shall 
we think of that man who remains part of a Cabinet whose head vetoes 
two bank charters, while he is the great bank champion ? Does the 
Secretary of St^te dispense the patronage of his office so as to merit 
or receive the support of Whigs ? No, sir ; look to his selections of 
newspapers to publish the laws. He selects the most vindictive parti- 
san presses in the Locofoco party. Witness the papers selected in 
Illinois, the St. Louis Bulletin, the Nashville Union, the New Orleans 
Advertiser, and a great many others which might be enumerated. All 
the editors patronized by Mr Webster, so far as I know, with but few 
exceptions are either Democratic, or they are renegades from the Wliig 
ranks to the Tyler pai'ty ; and his appointments to office are even worse 
than his selection of newspapers. 

" Mr. Chairman, let me suppose a case, for the sake of illustration. 
Suppose that Mr. Webster wished, at one time, to silence the thunders 
of the Globe against the Administration ; and, to effect that purpose, 
sent Mr. Weaver to employ the editors of that paper to print certain 
census papers, and that Mr. Weaver did so employ the said editors; 



388 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS 

but that the editors did not choose to support the Administration, and 
then Mr. Webster repudiated the contract, and hired the editor of the 
Madisonian to print the same papers : and then let me suppose, that 
Mr. Weaver was summoned to go before a committee of this House, 
to testify in relation to the matter ; and that Mr Webster, upon learn- 
ing the fact that Mr. Weaver was to give his evidence before the com- 
mittee, told him to beware what he did : and then suppose, that Mr. 
Weaver was a clerk in Mr. Webster's office, and that he construed 
Mr. Webster's language into a threat to dismiss him from office, if he 
told the truth ; and that Mr. Weaver, like an honest man, immediately 
resigned his office. If this supposed case is founded in truth, what 
confidence can we have in Mr. Webster's recommendations? 

" Now for the balance of the Cabinet. Mr. Spencer, for instance : he 
it was who wrote the call for the Syracuse Convention, after the extra 
session, breathing daggers and ratsbane against the President ; yet, 
in less than two weeks after denouncing the President, in the most 
indignant strains, he becomes a Tyler man and accepts the office of 
Secretary of War. To go no further, what can his recommendation 
be worth ? Take, if you please, Mr. Secretary Upshur, the metaphys- 
ical abstractionist, and disunion hero of the Old Dominion : his 
recommendation can be worth nothing to me, until I can believe that 
he is the best friend of the Union who is ready, at any time, to destroy 
it. I have not time to speak of the other members of the Cabinet ; 
but it is enough for me to know, that if they are the friends of John 
Tyler, in his present position, they can not be, in my judgment, friends 
of the country. And now, sir, aside from the force of the recom- 
mendations, what are the measures recommended by the Administra- 
tion ? The President recommends, in his late most extraordinary 
message, the repeal of the bill of the last session which provides for 
the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands. For the last ten 
years the Whigs have steadily contended for that measure; and 
now, as soon as it is passed, Mr. Tyler gives an earnest of his Whig- 
gery, by recommending its repeal. And because we do not choose to 
follow him blindly, we are to be taunted with factious opposition. 
The President tells us, in his message, that at the time he recom- 
mended in his message, last June, the passage of the act he now pro- 
poses to repeal, he had reason to believe there would be a surplus in 
the Treasury. Now, sir, how can that be, when, at the very time he 
recommended the passage of the distribution act, the Secretary of the 
Treasury showed, that so far from there being an excess of revenue in 
the Treasury, there would be a deficiency of at least §10,000,000? 
And at the very time, when the distribution bill was pending in this 



HENRY S. LANE. 389 

House, there was a bill pending for a loan of $12,000,000, and that 
loan asked for by the Administration. Now, one of two things is 
true : either that the President at the time he says he apprehended a 
surplus in the Treasury, was most grossly ignorant of the true condi- 
tion of our finances, or that he stated, in his last message, what he 
knew to be untrue, and what this House and the world know to be 
untrue. Now, I do not accuse the President 'of falsehood, but his 
friends may choose for him which ' horn of the dilemma' they prefer. 

" The distribution act has been opposed by its enemies, on the ground 
of its supposed unconstitutionality. How stands that objection ? 
Congress, by the Constitution, has, by express grant, this power, to 
wit : To dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respect- 
ing the territory, and other property of the United States. This 
grant of power, like many others which might be enumerated, in the 
Constitution, has no limitation, except the enlightened wisdom and 
sound discretion of Congress ; and so it has always been considered 
and practiced upon, by every Administration, and every party since 
the foundation of the Government. 

"During the administration of Washington, many laws were passed 
by Congress, and approved by him, upon the subject of the public 
lands, based upon the idea that the General Government had (he sole, 
exclusive, and unlimited control of these lands. During Washing- 
ton's administration, a grant of public lands was made by Congress 
to private individuals, without consideration. And during the ad- 
ministrations of all his successors, numerous donations of the public 
lands have been made to States, corporations, and individuals, for 
almost every conceivable object. Now, if we have no such power, all 
those grants must fail, and the title of the grantees is worth nothing. 
No one, I suppose, will contend for that doctrine. Well, if we have 
the power to give away the lauds themselves, have we not the power 
to dispose of their proceeds ? A distinguished Senator from South 
Cai-olina (Mr. Calhoun), at one time proposed to cede these lands to 
the States in which they lie, depriving the old States of any interest 
in them ; yet, in his opinion now, we have not the power to divide the 
proceeds of the public lands among all the States of this Union, upon 
principles of equity and justice. Mr. King, a distinguished Senator 
from Alabama, said, as early as 1832, that the public lands should no 
longer be looked to as a source of revenue to the United States. Gen. 
Jackson approved the act distributing the surplus revenue among the 
States, and recommended that measure to Congress. And did not 
that surplus arise from the sales of the public lands? If that act was 
Constitutional, and no one doubts it, surely the act of the last session 



390 EAELY ITs^DIANA TRIALS. 

was equally Constitutional. The distribution policy is not only Con- 
stitutional, but highly expedient, and in strict accordance with the 
deeds of cession, by which niost of the public lands were ceded by the 
different States to the General Government ; and also in exact con- 
formity to the uniform practice of the General Government, from its 
origin to the present time. The act proposed to be repealed is, at this 
time, of great and especial importance to the States, many of them 
being largely indebted, mainly for internal improvements, which they 
were first forced, or at least induced, to enter upon by the action of 
the General Government; for when Gen. Jackson vetoed the Mays- 
ville Road bill, and the policy of internal improvement was abandoned 
by the Federal Government, we were told that the States alone should 
engage in that work. In pursuance of that policy, and further stimu- 
lated by the distribution of the surplus revenue, systems of improve- 
ments were commenced, splendid and magnificent in their conception 
and design, but far beyond the power of the States to complete at 
present. The act of the last session would go far to relieve the people 
of the States from taxation, and to sustain their failing credit. 

" In another point of view it is but just to distribute the proceeds of 
the public lands among the States. The great source of revenue is, 
and always will be, in this country, duties on foreign importations. 
The power to tax foreign merchandise has been surrendered by the 
States to the General Government ; and their only remaining means 
of revenue is the power of direct taxation. To this repeal of the Land 
Bill I am opposed, not from any factious opposition to the Adminis- 
tration, but from an honest conviction of its impolicy and injustice. 

" Mr. Chairman, there is another measure proposed by the Executive, 
to which, in the most brief manner, I desire to give my objections. I 
mean the Exchequer Board recommended to us by the President in 
his annual message, and submitted to us by the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. This is neither the proper time, nor occasion for a lengthy anal- 
ysis of that measure ; but, inasmuch as other gentlemen have referred 
to it, I will be pardoned, I trust, for stating some of the most promi- 
nent objections to the plan. I am opposed to it, because it is an 
abandonment of our position, that Congress has the power to incorpo- 
rate a National Bank, and for the truth of which position we have 
contended for twelve years — and at length the people, by an immense 
majority, have decided in our favor ; because it has its origin with the 
President, and not with the people ; because it proceeds on the great 
error which was so signally rebuked in the election of 1840 — that 
it was the duty of the Government to take care of itself, and leave the 
people to take care of themselves, i. e.,the interests of the people should 



HENRY S. LANE. 391 

be divorced from the interests of the Government. I oppose it, because 
of the dangerous increase which it brings to Executive influence, 
patronage, and power, by giving to the President a direct and irresist- 
ible control over the whole financial operations of the nation, public 
and private ; because it combines, substantially, all the features of 
that monarchical, odious, and thrice condemned Sub-Treasury scheme 
(which brought defeat on the past Administration), together with a 
vast and overshadowing Government Bank, which, in the hand of a 
weak Executive, would be liable to great abuses, and in the hands of 
an ambitious, and corrupt one, would be converted into an instrument 
to enslave the people, and in the end would lead to the aristocracy of 
the purse, or to the despotism of the sword ; because I believe, in its 
operation it would prostrate every State bank in the Union ; because I 
can not see any possible benefit which would arise from it to those 
whom I represent ; because its adoption will elevate the power of the 
President above the power of the people, and substitute his will for 
the will of the nation ; and. lastly, because public sentiment in my dis- 
trict, so far as I have heard, or believe, is most decidedly opposed to 
the whole scheme ; and I am accountable to my constituents, to whom 
I am under so many obligations, and not to the President, to whom 
neither myself nor the country owes any thing. 

" Mr. Chairman, I have spoken only of the political conduct of the 
President and his Cabinet ; of their private character I know little. 
and say nothing. 

" Mr. Chairman, if I know myself, I do not, and have not factiously 
opposed the President. I would to God that his administration had 
been such as to have left it possible for me to have supported it. 
Neither are the Whig party factionists. Have we not voted for, and 
passed every measure recommended by the Administration, with the 
solitary exception of the Exchequer Board, and that most extraordi- 
nary measure, the repeal of the Land Bill ? The gentleman from 
Virginia asks. What are the measures which the ultra Whigs of this 
House, as he is pleased to call us, are in fivor of, and intend to sup- 
port? I answer for myself, one of the humblest members of that 
party, that I am in favor of a Bank of the United States ; that I am 
in favor of a tariff which will furnish an ample revenue for the Na- 
tional Treasury, and at the same time afford incidental protection to 
American enterprise and capital, American labor and industry ; and 
I am in favor of the distribution, among the States, of the proceeds 
of the public lands. And, in the honest advocacy of these measures, 
I had rather have the martyr's deathbed of glory, than to purchase 
the loftiest human elevation by their abandonment. But we are told, 



392 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

that unless we take whatever measures Mr. Tyler recommends, we 
shall have nothing, or that we can get nothing, which is the same. 

" I will not, Mr. Chairman, consent to humble Congress at the feet 
of the Executive. I will not, by any action of mine, violate the Con- 
stitution of my country, and revolutionize the whole frame of its 
Government, by giving to the President, in addition to all his other 
great powers, the almost omnipotent attribute of national legislation. 
Give him the monstrous and alarming engine of political jDOwer which 
he now asks, and what arm shall stay, what human power resist, the 
swelling v/aves of corruption, venality, and despotism, which threaten 
even now to whelm in ruins the blood-purchased Government of our 
noble ancestors ? Are the Whig party prepared to sacrifice all their 
claims to honor, independence, and patriotism, at the bidding of one 
man ? Sir, I see around me those veteran Whigs who resisted the 
demigod of party fame in his palmiest days — the hero of New 
Orleans ; those who looked upon the real lion in the pride of his 
prowess with an unblanched cheek and an eye that quailed not ; and 
shall they consent now to receive law at the hands of any man, and, 
least of all, at the hands of the present Executive ? Can we, with all 
the historic glory of our young Republic clustering around us, thus 
early in our history abandon our duty, our Constitution, our country ? 
Sir, before that act of self-immolation shall be consummated, remove 
from this hall that proud national eagle — it is not the fit emblem for 
a nation of slaves ; remove from these walls the portrait of that noble 
Frenchman who shed his blood in a land of strangers for that liberty 
which we trample upon ; remove the portrait of the Father of his 
country, for bondsmen can never be its guardians. But I will not 
for a moment suffer myself to think that liberty shall receive its death- 
wound in this proud hall — 

' We will not be the traitor slaves 

While Heaven has light, or earth has graves.' 

" One word, Mr. Chairman, in relation to the intimation contained 
in the President's last message on the subject of a foreign war. My 
thanks, and the thanks of the whole country, are due to the President 
and to Mr. Webster, his Secretary of State, for the ability, zeal, and 
manliness with which they have conducted all our negotiations. I 
hope the calamity of war is yet afar off, but if the national interest 
and national honor require it, let it come ; and in that event all the 
true friends of the country will stand together in defense of the 
Administration. To me it matters nothing who shall be our standard- 
bearer, so that he bears aloft the noble banner of the Republic. 



S. C. SAMPLE — J. G. REED — JOHN VAWTER. 393 

SAMUEL C. SAMPLE. 

My acquaintance with the subject of this sketch, commenced in the 
year 1820, at Connersville, when he became a student at law in my 
office. I knew him intimately while he lived. Mr. Sample was no 
ordinary man, plain, practical in all his acts. He represented his dis- 
trict in Congress with decided ability, was always at his post, among 
the working men of the body. At the bar, and as presiding judge 
of the circuit courts, he stood high, among the most efficient and able 
practitioners, and one of the purest judges that has graced the bench. 
His person was fine, his head, and forehead large, hair dark. He was 
taken from us in the middle of life, while discharging the duties of 
president of the State Bank, at South Bend, and reposes in the cem- 
etery there. Peace to his remains ! 



JAMES G. REE^. 

Among the early citizens of Indiana, I take pleasure in naming 
James Gr. Reed. He was for many years one of the prominent Dem- 
ocratic politicians of the State, and held high and important offices 
under the General Government. I became early and intimately 
acquainted with him, while he was canvassing the State as a candidate 
for Governor. Mr. Reed was a member of the State Senate for years, 
stood among the very first. As a speaker he was loud, impressive, 
impuldve, at times eloquent. He was always fortified with his facts, 
and brought them to bear with all his powers upon his audience. In 
person he was below the common hight, but strongly formed, head 
large, hair and eyes coal black, complexion dark, features good. I 
saw him lately, in good health, looking young for his age. 



JOHN VAWTER. 

The journals of the Senate, and House of Representatives, in early 
sessions of the Legislature of Indiana, will be searched in vain for a 
more prominent and active member than John Vawter. He deserves a 
notice here as one of the strong, practical men, who aided largely in 
the enactment of the early laws of the State, and in the formation 
of society, upon that moral and religious basis so essential to its pros- 
perity and the happiness of the people. Mr. Vawter, as a speaker, 
was plain, straight-forward. He always spoke to the question, not 
around, or about it ; was heard with marked attention by his audience. 
He was a strong Whig, attended all the conventions, and frequently 



394 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

presided over them. Mr. Vawter was a Baptist preaeter, of good 
standing. A few years ago, I was on the ears, at Morgantown, between 
Martinsville and Franklin. We stopped to take in passengers. Look- 
ing out of the window, I noticed a neat brick church, and learned 
from a passenger that it was built and donated to the Baptists by Mr. 
Vawter ; that he preached there now, in advanced life, when the pul- 
pit was not supplied. Long may he live to dispense his benevolence 
to his fellow-citizens. 



DENNIS PENNINGTON. 

I SHOULD be unfaithful to the history of the early settlers of Indiana, 
were I to overlook the subject of this sketch. The journals in the 
State Library are full of the acts, in a representative capacity, of Den- 
nis Pennington. Like John Vawter, his cotemporary, he stood 
among the most valuable men of the State. I first became acquainted 
with him when we were members of the Legislature, at Corydon, in 
the year 1822. He was plain, honest, firm, direct, open, frank. His 
mind was of a fair order, well stored with facts. As a speaker, he 
was strong, without any pretense to eloquence. He was a warm per- 
sonal and political friend of Henry Clay, and during his life con- 
tributed his whole powers to his support. Mr. Pennington has gone, 
with most of his co-laborers of early Indiana, to meet the reward of 
the well-doer in time. 



GEORGE K. STEEL. 

I CAN not pass by without a word to the memory, in after times, of 
my personal friend, George K. Steel, of Park county. I have long 
considered him among the most valuable men in this State. For many 
years he stood very high as a member of our Legislature ; frank, clear, 
strong, firm, honest, with a mind of no ordinary character ; he was at 
all times listened to with close attention by his audience. The main 
characteristic of Mr. Steel was energy — untiring energy. He never 
rested — always pushed forward with his whole strength, and with all 
his powers. I saw him yesterday, leaving the State Fair, in fijie 
health, in the summer of his life. 



JAMES L. RUSSEY. 395 



JAMES L. RUSSEY. 

The melancholy fate of my early friend, James L. Russey, of 
Muncie, prompts a word to his memory. Among the energetic, 
active, and persevering men of the State, he stood well with his 
neighbors and acquaintances. Soon after the fever for California 
gold broke out, he became infected, like many others, left his young 
family, and, taking his life in his hands, left for the gold region. 
He was a large, athletic, powerful man, in the morning of life, accus- 
tomed to out-door exertions, prepared for fatigue, and as brave a man 
as lived. After the usual incidents, dangers, and trials of a journey 
to California at that early day, he arrived with his companions in the 
gold regions, and commenced the operation of mining, at a rich placer, 
with every prospect of success before him. The country, at that time, 
among the diggings, was infected with small bands of Indians, who 
were strolling through the country in search of plunder. Mr. Russey 
it seems, left one day on a gold exploring expedition, intending to 
return in a few days. Time wore away ; days, weeks, months, years 
passed, but James L. Russey never returned. His fate is yet uncer- 
tain ; but still the better opinion is that he was killed and robbed by 
the Indians, and his body concealed or destroyed. He added but 
another to the thousands who have fallen victims to a thirst for gold, 
without realizing their anticipated treasure. 



396 EARLY INDIAJ^A TBIALS. 



SIMON YANDES. 

These sketches will live and be read by thousands when the author 
and his subjects shall sleep together in the silent tomb. This idea is 
my apology, if any were wanting, for speaking of those who are still 
in active life. The subject of this sketch has scarcely passed the 
spring-time of life. The summer, the autumn, the cold blasts of win- 
ter are still before him, but I can not pass him by without a word 
due to worth and private friendship. He was for years my partner in 
the practice of the law at Indianapolis. I knew him intimately and 
well, by weight and measure. He was one of the few men in life, 
upon whose word, faith, and integrity I could rely under all circum- 
stances. Surrounded by all kinds of temptations, Mr. Yandes was 
one of the most conscientious men, in professional and private life, I 
ever knew. He was a fine lawyer, one of the most industrious and 
energetic of the profession. In person, he was tall and slim, over six 
feet high, large head, retiring forehead, light hair, grey eyes, wide 
mouth, large lips, rather sallow complexion, narrow chest. As a 
speaker at the bar, he was clear, strong, seldom eloquent; he dealt 
with facts and figures with power, and let fancy sketches alone. I 
saw him to-day in fine health, with a bright future before him. 



WILLIAM C. RIVES. 

Among the prominent men of the United States, the subject of this 
sketch stands deservedly high. I had the pleasure of an intimate 
personal acquaintance with Mr. Rives during the twentieth Congress, 
when we were members of the House of Representatives. Our associ- 
ations were renewed in the Senate of the United States when we met 
in that body in 1837. Mr. Rives was a noble specimen of the Ancient 
Dominion that he represented. I am not prepared to say, that Mr. 
Rives occupied the high position of Virginia's intellectual giants, 
who filled the world with their fame in their day, but I do wish to be 
understood that Mr. Rives in modern times has had few equals in Vir- 
ginia and no superiors. In person, he was below the common hight, 
but he was a model of a man ; his head finely proportioned, eyes black, 
features fine, hair dark brown. As a speaker, Mr. Rives had few equals 
in the Senate, his style was nervous, emphatic. He always spoke in 
full earnest, his mind was of a high order, he always gave it full play, 
by ample preparation in advance. I thought him among the finest, 
and most eifective orators of the Senate. He was our minister to France 



WILLIAM C. RIVES. 397 

at one time, stood deservedly higli at that Court. I have selected for 
the reader, from his many published speeches, a few extracts from his 
speech on the subject of impressment of seamen, placing that import- 
ant national question, about which so much has been said and written, 
on the true national ground : it will be read with profit as well as 
interest. 

" I had supposed, that if any principle of the maritime code had been 
triumphantly vindicated and upheld by the labor of American states- 
men, it was this — that, in time of peace, there is no right in any case, 
on the part of a foreign cruiser, to interrupt or detain the vessels of 
another nation upon the high seas ; that a vessel of a nation upon the 
high seas, in time of peace, partakes of the inviolability of her territory, 
and that any entry on board such vessel without consent, is in the eye 
of the law a trespass. If a vessel, under the circumstances supposed 
in the message, be suspected of being a pirate, a foreign cruiser may, 
upon her responsibility, stop and examine her ; but she does so at her 
peril. If the suspected vessel be really a pirate, no harm will have 
been done ; but if on the other hand, she prove to be a hona fide ves- 
sel of the nation whose flag she bears, a trespass will have been com- 
mitted, involving both responsibility and indemnity, according to the 
circumstances of the case. It would not be difficult to show that these 
principles have in other times — and those too, not distinguished by 
any peculiar favor shown to the maritime rights of other nations, been 
recognized in the fullest manner by the highest British authorities. 
In a well kjiown case brought before him as judge, the celebrated Sir 
William Scott (afterward Lord Stowell) emphatically declared that he 
'■could find no authority that gives the right of interruption to the naviga- 
tion of States upon the high seas, except that mhieh the right of loar 
gives to helligerents against nentrals. ' But the whole doctrine upon 
this subject has been stated in so lucid and comprehensive a manner, 
and with such self-evident reason, in a despatch of Mr. Monroe, while 
Secretary of State under ihc administration of Mr. Madison, that I can 
not forbear to quote here what was said by the American (lovernment 
with so much weight of authority, on that occasion. In the instruc- 
tions to our plenipotentiaries for treating of peace with Great Britain, 
dated the 15th April, 1813, the American doctrine — the matured and 
carefully considered result of our long discussions with that power on 
the subject of maritime rights — was thus closely and deliberately 
summed up. 

" ' That the vessels of a nation are considered a part of its territory, 
with the exception of the belligerent right only, is a principle too well 
established to be brought into discussion. Each State has exclusive 



398 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

jurisdiction over its own vessels. Its laws govern in them ; and offen- 
ses against those laws are punishable by its tribunals only. The Jlag 
of a nation protects evo-y thing sailing under it in time of peace ; and 
in time of war, likewise, with the exception of the belligerent rights 
growing out of the war. An entry on board the vessels of one power 
by the cruisers of another in any other case, or the exercise of any 
other authority over them, is a violation of right, and an act of hostil- 
ity.' It is incumbent upon us to maintain this principle of the law 
of nations inflexibly, and in its undiminished integrity. The inviola- 
bility of the deck of an American vessel on the high seas, under all 
circumstances, in time of peace, and in time of war, with those limited 
exceptions only which are established by the acknowledged laws of 
war as affecting neutrals — is a doctrine indissolubly connected with 
our national honor and security. To admit a right of entry on board 
an American vessel on the high seas, in any case in time of peace, is 
to surrender the principle, and to open a door for the most dangerous 
abuses. On this subject, we may learn useful lessons from the history 
of the past. In our long and bitter controversy with Great Britain 
respecting iinpressnient, unable to find any principle of the law of 
nations which gave her the right to enter on board American vessels 
in quest of British seamen, she defended the practice under cover of 
a right to entry, acknowledged to exist in time of war, for a wholly 
different object. She said, that by the acknowledged rules of inter- 
national law, we have a right to board and search neutral vessels in 
time of war, for contraband and enemies property ; unci being, in the 
exercise of this unquestioned right, lawfully on board an American 
vessel, if we find British seamen there, we may lawfully impress and 
carry them away ; though we had no right in the first instance, to go 
on board for such an object. This was the British argument, in jus- 
tification of the impressment of seamen on board American vessels, 
gravely put forth to the world in the memorable declaration of the 
Prince Eegent of the 9th of January, 1813. 

" Now, Mr. president, if, contrary to the whole current of doctrine 
and authority by which we have been heretofore guided, on this sub- 
ject of maritime rights, we yield a right of entry into an American 
vessel in time of peace in any case, upon the plea of suspected piracy 
or any other — do we not afford a cover, under which Great Britain, if 
her pride or policy should dictate, may be emboldened to renew her 
claim of impressment, even in a time of general peace? She might 
well say (after the formula of the Prince Eegent's declaration), that 
being righffulJy on board, upon suspicion of piracy by your own 
admission, and finding there those we claim to be our seamen, we will 



WILLIAM C. RIVES. 399 

impress them, in the name and by virtue of that natural allegiance 
which our laws declare to be permanent and unchangeable, and which 
is due in peace as well as war. 

" Of all the pretexts for the violation of our flag, the loosest and 
most susceptible of abuse in practice, would be the plea of suspected 
piracy. What are the external indices of a pirate? A Zow, long, 
black-looking vessel, we are told ; and. under this description, every 
Baltimore schooner would be subject to be boarded and overhauled. 
In what, in the modern use of language, consists piracy itself? In the 
plastic hands of diplomacy and power, nothing is susceptible of a 
greater variety of protean shapes. We can not have forgotten, that 
in a solemn official communication which the late British Principal 
Secretary of State for foreign affairs (Lord Palmerston) caused to be 
addressed to this Government, in justification of the destruction of the 
Caroline, within the limits of our territory, the citizens of the United 
States who took part with the inhabitants of Canada in the late insur- 
rection in that province, were gravely characterized as ' American 
pirates ;' and an elaborate argument from Mr. Webster was necessary 
to prove that this application of the term was not proper. In the dis- 
cussions which took place between the same Minister and our Repre- 
sentative in London, on this very subject of the right of visit, he 
habitually denominated vessels supposed to be engaged in the slave 
trade, as ' slave-trading pirates ; ' and he repeatedly and emphatically 
appealed to the denunciation of the trade as inracy by the laws of the 
United States. 

"It is easy to foresee therefore, how, under an admitted right of visit, 
and search also, according to the message, upon suspicion of piracy, 
with a little of the dexterity and boldness of diplomacy in the use of 
language, the whole of our growing and important commerce on the 
coast of Africa, might be driven from those seas bv insupportable 
vexations. The only security to the rights of American navigation 
on the ocean, and for the honor of our flag, is to adhere inflexibly to 
the doctrine which was maintained by our fathers, and which has been 
delivered down to us from the great oracles of public law in Europe 
and America — that in time of peace there is no right in any case what- 
ever, on the part of a foreign cruiser, to enter and detain on the high 
seas (whether under the name of visit or search), a vessel which bears 
our national flag; by which, of course is meant the legitimate and 
hona fide flag of the United States." 



400 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

Abstract of the speech of the author, at the St. Louis Railroad 
Convention in October, 1849, Judge Douglass, President. 

Mr. President, I listened with all the attention due to the subject, 
to your opening speech, and also to the able speech of Col. Benton, 
yesterday. 1 am complimented by the request of the convention that 
I should take the main stand, showing a disposition to hear me. This 
is a great national question, and involves the practicability of building 
a railroad that shall be for all time the connecting link, inland, between 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This question being settled, we come 
to the minor questions, whether there shall be more than one road con- 
structed, at which point shall the Eastern terminus be, and how the 
means shall be raised to construct the work. I desire to address a 
few remarks to the convention upon these questions ; and, first, Mr. 
President, let me say a word upon your suggestion that to avoid Con- 
stitutional difiiculties, the commencement of the work should be in 
one of our territories, beyond the States of Missouri, Iowa, and Wis- 
consin. This is assuming that the road will be built, as a Govern- 
ment road, or under authority of the General Government, and that 
there is no Constitutional power to construct it in the States; and, 
therefore, to secure the power, the road must be made through terri- 
tories exclusively, if this j^osition is maintained. If this road can 
not be placed on national grounds, so as to relieve it from all Consti- 
tutional objections, it at once ends the question, and all argument in 
favor of its ever becoming a national work. It drives it from Con- 
gressional action, and leaves it to private associated enterprise, like 
all the other works in the States ; for it is very clear that it requires as 
strong an exercise of Constitutional powers to keep up, and run the 
road, and take tolls, after the road is built, as it does to construct it 
in the first place ; and it is equally clear that to commence the road 
in a territory will not relieve it of the difficulty, as these territories 
will soon be States, and if the State sovereignty shall strike down the 
arm of the Government, for the want of Constitutional power in the 
Government to uphold it, the question is settled. It never should be 
undertaken by the Government. This is a question that has divided 
the Statesmen of the United States. I have held, that wherever the 
main question is settled, that the work is of national importance, the 
power of the Government to construct it, under the enumerated Con- 
stitutional powers, follows as much as to build a light-house, establish a 
post-road, or a military road, in a State. Having said thus much, 
Mr. President, on the question of power on the part of the Govern- 



PACIFIC RAILROAD. 401 

ment to construct the work, if it shall be of a national character, I 
proceed to say something on the other questions involved. 

It seems to me but as yesterday that the Eastern press announced 
the completion of the then wonder of the age, the Pennsylvania 
Maucli Chunk railroad. Far and wide was the news spread, and 
thousands from every part of the country came to see the first rail 
road ever constructed in the United States. The road was about eigh 
miles in length, built upon an inclined plane, without cross-ties, heavy 
cast-iron chairs, a foot apart, bolted to rocks ; cars holding six pas- 
sengers, drawn up the grade at the rate of two miles an hour by 
mules, to be returned in the cars of the down train. The idea of 
steam engines had not then entered into the brain of any one as a 
propelling power on land. 

From this embryo idea have the railroads of the United States pro- 
gressed, until we have more miles of railroad than all the world 
besides. We no\v have seventeen thousand eight hundred miles of first- 
class roads, costing over five hundred millions of dollars, and traversing 
twenty-three States, in full operation, while the railroad spirit is push- 
ing its enterprises into every part of the nation. In lieu of the six- 
passenger car drawn by mules, at the rate of two miles an hour, we 
now have lightning trains with their thousand passengers propelled 
by their flying locomotives. 

From the mere local operations of that small beginning, our rail- 
roads have already passed the barriers of the Alleghanies, the Ohio, 
and the Mississippi, and are soon to connect the Atlantic with the Pa- 
cific, almost annihilating time and space, and binding the States 
together in bonds of common interest as durable as the Union — but 
a few years ago a band of pilgrim exiles on a rock-bound coast in the 
New World ; now, a mighty nation, whose flag floats in every commer- 
cial port, whose fame fills the world, and whose temple is dedicated to 
the true and living God. 

The great valley of the Mississippi, whose fertile soil, if properly 
cultivated, would feed the inhabitants of the globe, is rising in wealth, 
population, and power at a rate unparalleled in the history of our 
race, giving conclusive evidence that it is yet to contain a more dense 
population than any other part of the earth. Where the bread is, 
there will be the mouths to eat it. Indiana, with a population barely 
enough to be admitted into the Union as yesterday, now numbers over 
a million and a quarter. From a western frontier State, she now occu- 
pies the central portion of the nation ; from a single delegate in Con- 
gress, she now has eleven representatives ; and from being without a sin- 
gle mile of railroads, she now has some twelve hundred miles in full 
26 



402 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

operation, and others in process of construction. Such was her begin- 
ning, and such has been her progress. How greatly have the rela- 
tive positions of that State changed within a few years. A very short 
time since, the valley of the Mississippi was viewed as our western 
boundary, and none were so visionary as to look further west for prac- 
ticable purposes. Now that vast country on the Pacific embraced by 
Oregon and California — that land of gold and of promise, is rising in 
wealth and importance, with a rapidity without precedent in the his- 
tory of the world. We in the East are united to that distant part 
of the Union by all the ties of common interest, common brother- 
hood, and a common country. It is not strange, then, that the pub- 
lic mind, both in and out of Congress, should be turned to the impor- 
tance of a railway connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific? 
The ocean route around Cape Horn has long since been abandoned as 
too tedious, and attended with perils too great. The Panama and 
Nicaragua route, now principally traveled, can be tolerated only until 
the more direct route shall be prepared for the public. The overland 
emigrant route is one of great difficulty and peril. It is obvious, 
therefore, that neither of these routes will answer our purposes. As 
was to be expected, the enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with 
the Pacific by direct railway, has called forth the great minds of the 
nation. Some favor the idea of making it exclusively a national 
work ; others of making it a joint work between the Government and 
individuals; others of building it by a joint-stock company. All these 
plans have their advocates, and while all agree as to the grand idea 
that a road should be built, the danger is that any work will be 
defeated by the number of plans and routes that will be brought for- 
ward. There are some who think that the Government will make the 
work, and that it is unnecessary to invoke associated enterprise. If 
there were no other objections to this view, the question of route 
alone will always defeat any efficient action of Congress in making it 
a national work. Many routes and many plans will be proposed. Sur- 
veys and reports will be made ; politicians, great and small, will ride 
and fall on the hobby of a national Pacific railroad, and hopes deferred 
will sicken the soul so long as it remains a subject of political conten- 
tion. The final result will be, that the Pacific railroad will be built 
just as the other great enterprises of the day have been — by associated 
stockholders, either with or without the collateral aid of the Government 
in the shape of lands or otherwise. In the hands of such a company, 
actively, energetically, and honestly engaged at an early day, a com- 
pany that could command the confidence of the public at home and 
abroad, the work, however immense and however costly, can be built ; 



PACIFIC EAILEOAD. 403 

and wlien in operation, no human foresight can measure its impor- 
tance to the stockholders and the public. 

There are three routes already prominently before the country, — 
the Northern, or Whitney route, adopted by Governor Seward ; the 
Missouri route insisted upon by Col. Benton ; and the Southern, or 
Gila route, favored by Robert J. Walker, Senator Gwin, and their 
associates. The Northern route makes Chicago its eastern terminus ; 
the Missouri route St. Louis ; and the Southern route Memphis. All 
these routes are maintained by their friends, as practicable. The 
friends of the Southern route, however, claim for it great advantages 
over either of the others, in view of the mild latitude of its probable 
location, being so far south as to be protected from the deep snows 
that cover the northern mountains. They say that passes through 
the Rocky Mountains, on their route, with moderate elevations, can 
be obtained, through which the road can be constructed upon easy 
grades. These matters should be fully tested before any route is 
adopted. 

The friends of the Pacific railroad are much indebted to Mr. Whit- 
ney for his untiring efforts to arouse the people of the United States 
to its importance. He visited the most, if not all, of the States, held 
public meetings, delivered able addresses, obtained memorials and 
petitions to Congress favorable to his plans, procured reports from 
committees in Congress strongly advocating his views, enlisted for a 
time the advocacy of the ablest presses in America, including the New 
York Tribune. He visited England and laid his plans before com- 
mittees there with some prospect of success, and at one time it really 
looked as if his plan would meet the favor of the nation. But the 
more closely it was examined, the less favor it obtained, until at this 
day there are very few who openly avow themselves in its favor. The 
radical objection was two-fold. The first was, that its location was too 
far north to make it a national work ; its starting point was at the 
Northern Lakes ; the route was upon a highly northern parallel of 
latitude liable to be incumbered by deep snows ; it passed extensive 
wastes between the Lakes and Rocky Mountains, uninhabitable by 
man, without timber, and destitute of water. Its route lay far from 
any traveled part of the country, and therefore the whole road to the 
Pacific would have to be constructed before any part could be made 
profitable. 

These and other objections seemed to rise against the route. But 
the other and still more prominent and fatal objection to the plan of 
Mr. Whitney, was as to the inadequacy of the means with which he 



404 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

proposed to construct the work. While the matter lay simply in 
petitions and resolutions to Congress, the cost to the people was 
nothing, Mr. Whitney went on swimmingly. But when the question 
of means was examined, the matter took a more serious turn ; and here, 
perhaps, is the important point of all enterprises, great and small. 
It is not so difficult to find routes for railroads as means to build 
them. If Mr. Whitney's route had even met the approbation of the 
nation, it was easy to see that his means were wholly inadequate to 
the proposed end. The building of a railroad to the Pacific is a Her- 
culean work ; will require much time, and a very large amount of 
means — not less, evidently, than one hundred millions of dollars, and 
even that sum might not accomplish the enterprise. Mr. Whitney 
and the committees of Congress proposed that the work should be 
built out of the proceeds of a strip of sixty miles of the public lands 
on the route of the road. It was clear that the sales of the whole of 
the public lands of the United States, located to suit purchasers, did 
not exceed over three or four millions of dollars annually, upon the 
ground that public lands are governed by the principle of supply and 
demand, like other articles in the market. Then supposing Mr. 
Whitney to receive annually one million of dollars from his strip, it 
would take one hundred years to build the road out of these means, if 
every tie and every rail were as durable as the granite rock. The plan 
of Mr. Whitney does not seem to be longer urged upon Congress; 
yet he certainly gave strength to the idea of connecting the Atlantic 
with the Pacific by railway, and caused thousands to investigate the 
subject who otherwise would never have looked into it. I take pleas- 
ure in referring to this pioneer Pacific-railroad man, and in com- 
mending his zeal and untiring efforts to those who shall follow in that 
great enterprise. 

I am favorable to a single road to the Pacific, to run through the 
South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, branching on the Pacific side to 
San Francisco and Oregon City, with branches on the Atlantic side 
from Memphis, St. Louis, and Chicago, uniting at or near the mouth 
of the Kansas. Such a line, with such branches, if as practicable as 
to grades, snows, and other obstructions, I believe, would be of a 
more national character, and accommodate more of the Atlantic States 
than any other. 

The question of means to construct this great work, is still of th 
highest importance. It has been already observed that this can never 
be solely a political road ; but it does not follow that if a private 
stock company should take hold of the work in a spirit of faithful 



PACIFIC RAILEOAD. 405 

determination to construct it, Congress should not give at least as 
mucli incidental aid as lias been given to other works in the States. 
Are the United States less interested in the construction of the Pacific 
Railroad than in the works they have already aided by grants of pub- 
lic lands? Most assuredly not. Indeed it may be assumed, that 
were there no Constitutional objections ; no questions of route ; no 
questions of precedent, this great enterprise would demand the 
immediate action of Congress in its construction. No work of the 
kind, in this or any other country, has ever been so important to the 
whole nation. No work so essential in times of peace or war. If 
constructed, it would at once become the great artery of the nation, 
through which would flow the life-blood of commerce. It would 
become the import channel for the transportation of our great mail 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It woiild afi"ord the most rapid pos- 
sible facilities for throwing our army and munitions of war into the 
distant parts of the Union, in cases of sudden emergency. It would 
add immensely to the value of the public domain in the region of 
country through which it might pass. It would be the means of set- 
tling remote sections, and protecting the immigrants between the 
Atlantic and Pacific. It would remove, in a great degree, the dan- 
gers to our citizens of traveling by other routes from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific ; and, above all, it would bring the remote States of the 
Union into the same neighborhood, remove all inducements to a 
separation, and perpetuate the Union for all time. Such would be 
some of the advantages of the road to the nation : there are others 
of scarcely, if any, less importance. 

The commerce of the United States is completely severed — not 
only internally, but externally. There is no common intercourse 
between the States. The Atlantic and Pacific sections must remain 
as foreign nations to each other, until a direct avenue of connection 
is opened between them, the eifect of which will not only be to unite 
them together in commercial relations, but to draw to them those 
nations with whom they are separately united by commercial ties. 
The islands of the Pacific, China, and Japan will follow Washington, 
Oregon, and California, with their commerce through the direct chan- 
nel to the Atlantic cities ; and England and France will meet them 
there, and, in turn, pass through the great highway to the shores of 
the Pacific. It requires but a single glance at the map to see, that 
whenever this great thoroughfare shall be opened across the United 
States, it must become, like the ocean, the highway of nations, con- 
necting, not only the Atlantic with the Pacific, but Europe with Asia, 



406 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

by a direct and much shorter route than was ever dreamed of by 
modern navigators. If this be so, then indeed are the United States 
more deeply interested in this great enterprise than in any and all 
others that have received their countenance and regard ; and may it 
not be hoped, that the high importance of the work may call forth so 
united an expression on the part of Congress, favorable to such collat- 
eral aid in the grant of lands contiguous to the line that may be 
adopted, as to enable a company, with the stock that may be obtained, 
to construct the work? This road will have to be built in continuous 
sections, from the eastern and western terminus, carrying forward the 
materials over the finished sections, populating the country, and mak- 
ing the road profitable to the stockholders as it advances, until the 
ends shall meet, and the whole line be thrown open to the world. 

The influence of our railroads upon the wealth and prosperity of 
the nation admits of no estimate ; it may be safely said, that we are in 
advance of where we would have been without them, more than fifty 
years ; and that the increase in value of the real estate within the 
direct influence of their operations, is more than three hundred fold. 

The number of miles of railway now in operation upon the sur- 
face of the Globe, is 35,264; of which 16,180 miles are in the eastern 
hemisphere, and 19,084 miles in the western : and which are distrib- 
uted as follows : In the United States, 17,811 miles; in the British 
Provinces, 823 miles ; in the island of Cuba, 359 miles ; in Panama, 
31 miles ; in South America, 60 miles ; in Great Bi'itain, 6,976 miles ; 
in Germany, 5,340 miles ; in France, 2,480 miles ; in Belgium, 532 
miles ; in Russia, 422 miles ; in Sweden, 75 miles ; in Italy, 170 
miles ; in Spain, 60 miles ; in Africa, 25 miles ; and in India, 100 
miles. The longest railway in the world, is the New York Central, 
which is 621 miles in length ; the number of miles of railway in the 
United States, exceeds the rest of the world by the amount of 358 
miles. The total number of railways completed, in the United States, 
is 264; the number in course of construction, is 134; the number of 
miles in operation, is 17,811, which have been constructed at a cost of 
$508,588,038 ; the number of miles in course of construction, is 12,898. 
The average cost of the railroads of the United States, per mile, has 
been only a fraction over $28,000 ; there were opened in the United 
States, in the year 1851, 1,278 miles ; in 1852, 2,282 miles ; and in 
1853, 3,964 miles. 

The estimated cost of the Pacific Railroad, is one hundred mill- 
ions of dollars. This appears at first blush to be an enormous sum 
for a single work, but when we reflect that we have already built 



PACIFIC EAILROAD. 407 

more railroads than all the world beside, and that the Erie Railroad 
alone cost nearly the one-third of that sum, and then take into con- 
sideration the magnitude and importance of this work, and that it will 
enlist in its construction the capital of Europe as well as America, 
the question would seem to be no longer debatable, whether or not it 
can be constructed, by the right kind of men using proper energy at 
the proper time. The work will have two important advantages over 
ordinary roads. It will not have to meet the hypocritical cry from 
persons interested in completed works, that we are building too many 
railroads, and the heavy cost of its construction will protect it from 
any rival work for years, giving it the direct business overland between 
the oceans. 

I would like, Mr. President, to say something upon the question 
of route, noticed by Col. Benton, but I see the Committee on Resolu- 
tions are coming, and I will not longer occupy the stand. I am 
greatly obliged to the convention for the courtesy of a hearing. 



408 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 



CALEB B. SMITH. 

Few men in the West have filled a larger space in the public eye 
than the subject of this sketch. One day I was sitting in my office 
at Connersville, when there entered a small youth, about five feet 
eight inches high, large head, thin brown hair, light blue eyes, 
high, capacious forehead, and good features, and introduced himself 
as Caleb B. Smith, from Cincinnati. He stated his business in a lisp- 
ing tone. He had come to read law with me, if I could receive him. 
I assented to his wishes, and he remained with me until he was admit- 
ted to practice, and commenced his professional, as well as political 
career, at Connersville. He rose rapidly at the bar, was remarkably 
fluent, rapid, and eloquent before the jury, never at a loss for ideas or 
words to express them ; if he had a fault as an advocate, it was that 
he suffered his nature to press forward his ideas for utterance, faster 
than the minds of the jurors were prepared to receive them; still he 
was very successful before the Court and jury. He represented his 
county in the Legislature of the State ; was Speaker of the House; 
twice elected to Congress from his district ; stood high in that body as 
a member, and an eloquent speaker. He was one of the most elo- 
quent and powerful stump-speakers in the United States, a warm and 
devoted Whig ; was on the commission, after he left Congress, with 
Corwin and Payne, under the Mexican treaty ; since which he has 
retired to the practice of his profession in Cincinnati. I saw him a 
few days ago, in fine health, but how changed; age had marked him 
visibly ; his head was bald, his cheeks furrowed, his eyes sunken, 
covered with glasses. I give to the reader an extract from his speech 
upon the Constitutionality of the act of Congress, requiring Congress- 
men to be elected by districts. Some of the States had elected by 
general tickets, disregarding the act of Congress as unconstitutional. 

" This is the first time, since the organization of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, that the House of Representatives has been called upon in 
this manner to decide upon the Constitutionality of an act of Con- 
gress. From the decision of the House there is no appeal ; its action 
is final, and can not be reversed. The Constitution having made each 
branch of Congress, respectively, the exclusive judge of the validity 
of the election of its own members, the question can not be presented 
to the judicial tribunals of the country, for their decision. It becomes 
U8, then, to be the more cautious and circumspect in our deliberations, 
and the more careful of the precedent we may establish. Before we 
assume the responsibility of declaring an act of Congress unconstitu- 
tional and void, it should be made clear and palpable that the Consti- 



CALEB B. SMITH. 409 

tutiou tas been violated. Should the question be one of doubt, it is 
our duty to regard the law as binding, and to conform our action to 
its provisions. Without further preliminary remarks, I will proceed 
to the examination of the question now before the House. The last 
Congress incorporated in the act to apportion llepresentatives among 
the several States, a provision that the Representatives from each 
State should be elected by districts, but one member being elected 
from any one district. All the States have complied with the requisi- 
tions of the act of Congress, and elected their llepresentatives in 
conformity with its provisions, except the States of New Hampshire, 
Georgia, Mississippi, and Missouri. These States have elected their 
Representatives by general ticket, in direct violation of the law. The 
House is now called upon to determine whether the Representatives 
thus elected in violation of the law are entitled to seats upon this floor. 
If the act of Congress requiring the Representatives to be elected by 
districts is Constitutional, it is clear they have no right to be admitted 
as members, and they can only retain their seats upon the supposition 
that the law is in violiktion of the Constitution. A decision of the 
Constitutional question is then unavoidable, as upon its determination 
rests their right. Much has been said during the discussion, of the 
relative advantages of the district and general ticket systems of elect- 
ing Representatives, and also of the propriety of Congress attempting to 
control the action of the States upon this subject. This argument 
has certainly no relevancy to the subject now under discussion. 
When the bill containing this provision was before Congress, the expe- 
diency of the measure was a legitimate subject of argument. But 
having become a law, the question of its expediency is at an end. It 
is now recorded upon our statute-book as a law of the land, and as a 
law-abiding people, we are bound to yield implicit obedience to its 
behests, unless it is clearly in violation of the Constitution. The 
second section of the apportionment act of the last Congress, the Con- 
stitutionality of which is denied, is as follows : 

" ' And be it further enacted, That in each case where a State is 
entitled to more than one Representative, the number to which each 
State shall be entitled under the appointment shall be elected by dis- 
tricts, composed of contiguous territory, equal in number to the num- 
ber of Representatives to which said State shall be entitled ; no one 
district electing more than one Representative.' 

" Had Congress the right to make this regulation in regard to the 
manner of electing Representatives? That clause in the Constitution 
under which the power is claimed, is found in the fourth section of 
the first article, and reads in these words : ' The time, place, and 



410 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall 
be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof, hut the Con- 
gress may at any time, by law, m^ake or alter such regulations, except 
as to the place of choosing Senators.' The power is here expressly 
conferred upon Congress, either to make regulations in regard to ' the 
time, place, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Repre- 
.sentatives,' or to ' alter such regulations as may be made by the State 
Legislatures.' 

" The position advanced by a majority of the Committee on Elec- 
tions, that the act of Congress, requiring the Representatives to be 
elected by districts, is a nullity, because it does not define the district 
and prescribe all the regulations necessary to complete the election, 
could only have been conceived in the desperate effort to nullify an 
act of Congress, in the absence of any reasonable or plausible pretext 
to do so. That Congress has the power under the Constitution to 
district the States, and regulate, in every other respect, the ^manner' 
of the elections, is not denied. It was never supposed, however, by 
those who framed the Constitution, that Congvess would enter into the 
details in prescribing the manner of election. These it was undoubt- 
edly supposed, would be left to the legislation of the States. Mr. 
Madison, in speaking of the action of the convention, as I have 
before quoted, said : ' It was thought the particular regulations should 
be submitted to the States, and the general regulations to Congress.' 
The action of Congress in this respect, is strictly in conformity with 
the opinion of that distinguished statesman. It aspires only to pre- 
scribe the general regulation, that the election shall be by districts, 
while the particular regulations of defining the districts, and the mode 
of conducting the elections and making the returns, is left to the 
States. If the States choose to elect their Representatives in conform- 
ity with the general regulations thus prescribed, and the act of Con- 
gress, '■ in pursuance thereof,' their Representatives may claim to be 
admitted on this floor. But if they refuse to elect in conformity to 
these regulations, those claiming to be their Representatives have no 
more right to be admitted as members of this body, than would the 
same number of persons elected in Canada or Texas. Should there 
be a continued refusal on the part of the States to conform to the 
regulations prescribed. Congress might be driven to the necessity of 
exercising more fully the power which it possesses of regulating ' the 
time, place, and manner ' of the elections, in order to secure a repre- 
sentation from the States, and insure the continuance of the Govern- 
ment. 

" It is, Mr. Speaker, unfortunate for the country that party-spirit 



CALEB B. SMITH. 411 

has attained the alarming ascendency we have witnessed for some 
years past. If we have reason to fear for the permanency of our 
Government, and the prosperity of our institutions from any cause, it 
is from this. The danger o^ party degenerating into faction is immi- 
nent and alarming. The history of the past appeals to us, in solemn 
and warning tones, to avoid this evil. It is the fatal rock, upon 
which most of the republics which have heretofore existed, have split. 
And can we expect to pursue the same course, and yet avoid the 
results which have heretofore uniformly sprung from it? Can we 
expect to nourish the viper in our bosom, and not feel his fangs? 
Let us not lull ourselves into a false security by any such anticipa- 
tions. Human nature is in all ages of the world the same; and the 
same causes which brought destruction upon the republics of the old 
world, must work out the same bitter fruits with us, if not counter- 
acted, notwithstanding all our boasted intelligence and patriotism. 
The hideous spirit of faction has indeed already, to a most alarming 
extent, been developed in this country. The rigid discipline of 2)arti/ 
has already, to an extraordinary degree, destroyed every thing like 
independence of opinion. Like the iron bed of Procrustes, it admits 
of no latitude and no variation from the party standard. The expan- 
sive or contracting power is applied, until the opinions of its votaries 
are brought to range with the party lines. Opinions of the most dan- 
gerous character and the most anti-republican tendency are advanced 
by party leaders, and b^ing incorporated into the party creed, receive 
the cordial support of all the party adherents. I fear, sir, that the 
history of this country will furnish additional evidence of the truth 
of the remark, that the ' spirit of party is stronger than the spirit of 
liberty.' It sweeps over the country with the resistless power of the 
tornado, prostrating its institutions and sacrificing its best interest. 
The voice of patriotism, as compared with its powerful tones, is but 
as the gentle whispers of the evening breeze to the hoarse thunders 
of the resistless whirlwind. The laws and Constitution become as 
powerless to arrest its course, as the mere parchment upon which they 
are written. Have we not reason to believe that this spirit has given 
birth to the violent opposition which has been made to the apportion- 
ment act of the last Congress ? For the first time in many years, the 
Whigs had a majority in both branches of the last Congress. The 
party which has been driven from power by the voice of the people 
in 1840, smarting under the irrecent defeat, assailed the Whig Con- 
gress with every species of abuse and vituperation. No sooner had it 
exercised the clear and unequivocal power delegated to it by the Con- 
stitution, to require the election of Representatives to Congress to be 



412 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

made by districts, than a regular and systematic party organization 
was adopted to resist and nullify its action. Notwithstanding the 
almost universal sentiment throughout the country, of the great 
advantages of the district over the general ticket system of election, 
several of those States in which the Whig party was in the minority, 
while they conformed their action to the law, and laid off the Con- 
gressional districts in pursuance of its requisitions, protested against 
the right of Congress to make this regulation, and hurled defiance to 
the Federal Government. 

" The decision of this question will be looked for with deep and 
anxious solicitude. Should this House treat this law as unconstitu- 
tional, although its decision may meet with the approbation of a 
strong political party, yet, sir, when the spirit of party shall subside 
(if in the wisdom of Providence we shall ever be permitted to see 
that period), and the American people shall see, and think, and act, 
uninflvienced by party shackles, its decision will meet with universal 
condemnation. Had the construction now attempted to be placed on 
the fourth section of the first article of the Constitution been sug- 
gested in the days of Madison, of Jefferson, and of Hamilton, it 
would have excited a smile and provoked ridicule ; and in after times, 
when no interested or party feelings shall obscure the judgment or 
becloud the understanding, men will wonder at the delusion which 
could sustain such a construction." 



THE TELEGRAPH. 413 



THE TELEGRAPH. 

It was in tlie year 1842, about 12 o'clock of the day, when I was 
notified in the Senate Chamber by the Sergeant-at-Arms, that Profes- 
sor Morse wished to see the Senators in a committee room for the pur- 
pose of showing the operation of his magnetic telegraph. I repaired 
to the room at once, and found the Professor there alone. In a few 
minutes Senators Linn, Huntington, Merrick, Berrian, Woodbury, and 
Davis came in. He then proceeded to show us his invention and to 
point out the mode of operation. I watched his countenance closely, to 
see if he was not deranged, as that very morning I had been met in the 
rotunda by a middle-aged man with long hair hanging over his face, 
and as we met he remarked : " Are you a member of Congress ? " "I 
am." " Are you as big a fool as the rest? " " Perhaps so, and perhaps 
not." " Do you believe any thing that you don't see ? " " Yes, I have 
a good deal of faith." " I am the inventor of the flying fish, do you 
believe in that?" " I never supposed that there was any difficulty in 
flying ; I thought the trouble was in lighting ; can you light easy ? " 
" I understand you. The question you ask is, whether I can over- 
come gravitation. I see you are just as big a fool as the rest of 
them," and he passed on. He was evidently deranged, and I looked 
upon Prof. Morse, and his wild talk about electricity, and the cer- 
tainty of the success of his plan, in the same light, and I was assured 
by the other vSenators after we left the room, that they had no confi- 
dence in it. There was not at that time a mile of stretched wire for 
telegraphic purposes in the United States. Soon after there was an 
operation very satisfactory between Capitol Hill and Bladensburgh, 
some five miles, which was followed by an extension of the wire to 
Baltimore, with entire success. Such was the beginning of the system 
of telegraphs in the United States, that has extended over the length 
and breadth of the land, and will ultimately, by the submerged wires, 
connect Europe with America, Asia, Africa, and Oceanica, anni- 
hilating time and space, overcoming all natural obstruction upon land 
and under the ocean, and our mighty rivers. It is not my purpose to 
describe the instrument, nor to trace the embryo stages of the idea 
that led to the perfected telegraphic wire with the battery, by which 
our words are carried with the speed of lightning, and the certainty 
of truth. The object of this sketch is to show the reader the skepti- 
cism of good minds, after full explanations on this great invention. 
Professor Morse was above the medium hight, well made, dark hair 
and eyes, large square forehead, prominent nose, wide mouth, project- 
ing chin, hair thrown up on one side of his head, dressed plain, wore 



414 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

no hair on his face. His countenance indicated deep thought and 
long study. His mind during the time I was with him seemed to be 
entirely absorbed with the telegraph. I find in the Western Demo- 
cratic Review, a notice of Professor Morse and the telegraph, from 
which I take some extracts that will be read with interest : 

" Mr. Morse acquired a vast fund of knowledge in his European 
tour, having familiarized himself with the best models in the world; 
and he quit England, in 1832, with every prospect of winning, in a 
few years, a splendid fame. 

" Up to this period, according to the most reliable information in 
our possession, Mr. Morse seems not to have indulged even a remote 
idea of such an invention as that which has since enrolled him on the 
list of the first scientific men of all ages. His whole mind appears to 
have been occupied upon matters bearing no relation even to the sub- 
ject of electricity, in any of its various modes. It is doubtless true 
that his reading had been so extensive, and his habits of thought so 
rigid and methodical, he could easily have transformed himself from 
a painter to a sage, but it is not in evidence that any such disposition 
as he afterward made of lightning was a part of his daily meditation. 
Indeed, if he be constituted like the generality of the votai-ies of the 
' fine arts,' a prophetic development of his future course would proba- 
bly have subjected the scientific Elijah to silent imputations on the 
part of Morse not very creditable to the inspiration of the former. 
The privilege is not allowed even to genius in this world to inspect 
its own elements, and read its own destiny, and it is perhaps well for 
mankind that it is so. Could we lift the curtain which hides our 
future lives, and glance hastily at the misfortunes, the vexations, and 
the disappointments which await us, we should be discouraged from 
attempting the performance even of such deeds as are destined even- 
tually to crown us with honor. Could Prof. Morse have foreseen the 
trials through which he has passed, and believed that he would be 
called to prove to the scientific world so obvious a fact as his exclusive 
right of property in the magnetic telegraph, this great invention 
would probably not have ranked among the improvements of the 
nineteenth century. But we have not space to digress from our sub- 
ject. 

" The word telegrnpli is from two Greek words, ~r^}.e and Y(>o.(f(o — 
the former signifying ' distant,' and the latter ' write,' referring to a 
contrivance by which intelligence may be communicated to a distance, 
and generally to a method of communicating by preconcerted sig- 
nals. Difierent names have been applied in different countries. In 
France, the denomination Simaphore is often used. Telegraphing is 



THE TELEGRAPH. 415 

almost as old as the world, having been considered a very important 
adjunct, in every age, of the machinery of war. Perhaps a thousand 
kinds of signals have prevailed among the various nations of the 
earth, and a history of their gradual improvement, though void of 
value, would not be destitute of interest. One of the most complete 
and simple methods which we remember was practiced by John Smith, 
the ' flither of Virginia,' while a prisoner of war in Turkey. Most 
of the telegraphs of olden times consisted of boards or wooden arms, 
which signified the letters of the alphabet, according to the positions 
in which they were placed. A singular telegraph was used in France 
toward the close of the last century, by which intelligence was com- 
municated, letter by letter — only sixteen letters constituting the entire 
alphabet. A piece of machinery of this description was in operation 
between the Louvre, in Paris, and Lisle, enabling the Committee of 
Public Safety and the combined armies in the Low Countries to com- 
municate with each other. So great were the advantages derived even 
from the use of this bungling apparatus, all Europe, and particularly 
the British Empire, set about eifecting some radical improvement. A 
great number of plans was proposed, which may be reduced to two 
classes : first, shutters, which open or close certain apertures made to 
receive them ; secondly, arms movable on pivots. A shutter-appara- 
tus was adopted by the Admiralty in the first Government line of tele- 
graphs established in England, in the year 1796. between London and 
Dover. This machinery continued in use until 1816. In this year, 
it was determined to adopt the semaphores of France, which had been 
in use on the French coast from 1803 ; and, as materially improved 
by Sir Home Popham, they were found of very great service. Pop- 
ham's telegraph consisted of two arms on one post ; but, as they were 
mounted upon separate pivots, each could assume six different posi- 
tions, and was capable of aifording twenty-four signals. This appa- 
ratus, with some modifications, lasted until the introduction of the 
electric telegraph. The greatest facility ever attained in signal com- 
munication was by the method invented by Col. Paisley, of France, 
in 1822 : ' It consisted of upright posts of moderate hight, having 
two arms moving upon a common pivot, each of which could be put 
in seven positions, and each position indicated a word or sentence. 
The posts were placed from three to five miles apart ; but each was 
visible to the nearest on either side. When the arm of the first was 
put in a given position, the man at the second put his in the same 
position, and the third, fourth, etc., did the same, and a word was thus 
run through the line at tiie rate of about a mile in a second ; then 
another word was conveyed in the same way, and then another, and 



416 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

so OD, till the whole message was communicated. It could be used, 
of course, only by day-light. There were twenty-seven of these signal 
posts between Calais and Paris, 152 miles ; a word was conveyed 
through the line in three minutes, and a sentence of ten word in half 
an hour. There were eighty signal posts between Paris and Brest, 
325 miles, through which distance a word was conveyed in ten min- 
utes, and a sentence of ten words in one hour and forty minutes. It 
will be seen at once, that this mode of conveying intelligence was very 
expensive ; it required more than eighty men to convey ten words 325 
miles, and kept them occupied one hour and two-thirds. And yet it 
was deemed so important to be able to convey it in this speedy man- 
ner, the government of France supported them at the cost of ^210,000 
annually. England paid S15,000 a year to sustain 72 miles of tele- 
graph, between Portsmouth and London.' 

" Methods of telegraphic communication without machinery, have, 
at various periods, been devised and used in conducting -military ope- 
rations ; and these have been found particularly valuable in time of 
war. One is by ' disks of wood, held by men in certain positions ; 
another, by a white handkerchief, varied in position ; another, by two 
small flags; and another, by stationing men in pre-arranged positions,' 
etc. Naval signals have been found absolutely necessary, at all times 
They have consisted usually of flags, of various forms and colors, some 
times numbered in signal books. The best system of flag telegraph- 
ing is perhaps that invented a few years ago by Mr. Watson. But 
we must proceed at once to the consideration of the Electro-Mag- 
netic Telegraph. 

" While on his way to the United States, in 1832, upon the packet- 
ship Sully, a gentleman referring to the experiments which had just 
been made in Paris with the electro-magnet, a discussion arose in 
regard to the time occupied by the electric fluid in passing through 
a wire of a hundred feet in length. Upon the intimation that the 
passage is instantaneous — recollecting the experiments of Franklin — 
Mr. Morse suggested that the electricity could be carried to any dis- 
tance, and be made a means of conveying and recording intelligence. 
The idea took deep hold of his mind, and Ijefore the end of the voy- 
age he had draughted and written a plan of the greatest invention of 
the age. 'The electric telegraph, invented by Prof Morse, of Amer- 
ica, in 1837, was essentially a registering instrument, the various 
signals being traced on a strip of paper. An electro-magnet was so 
placed as to be within attracting distance of any armature fixed to the 
shorter arm of a lever, of which the longer end carried a pencil, pro- 
jecting sidewise from it, and pressed lightly against a sheet of paper. 



THE TELEGEAPH. 417 

This paper was made to travel slowly beneath the pencil. So long as 
no attractive power was exerted by the electro-magnet, the pencil 
would continue to trace a straight line, as the paper moved onward : 
but on momentarily making the circuit with the battery, the armature 
was drawn to the electro-magnet, and the pencil, carried by t!ie arm 
of the lever upward, made an angular mark, like the letter V reversed, 
on the paper. These angles might either be joined in groups, by 
rapidly succeeding completions of the circuit, or they might be sepa- 
rated by longer or shorter spaces of straight line. The nine digits 
were represented by corresponding numbers of angles, and these were 
combined so as to form all possible numbers. In the telegraph con- 
structed by Morse, in 1844, between Baltimore and Washington, a 
different mode of recording the signals was adopted. The use of the 
pencil was found objectionable, from its so frequently requiring fresh 
pointing, and from the risk of breakage. The same arrangements 
were retained in regard to the paper, but it was made in its course to 
pass under a roller having a groove around it. The long arm of the 
lever carried a blunt steel point, standing out from its upper surface 
vertically, under the groove in the roller. When, thei'efore, the arm 
of the lever was elevated, by the attraction of the magnet upon the 
armature, the steel point pressed the paper into the groove, and pro- 
duced an indentation. If the attraction were momentary, a depressed 
point was produced ; but if the act were continued for a longer time, 
a lengthened depression was the result, as the paper was drawn on. 
The combinations of these two kinds of marks denoted the various 
letters and figures. In his first instrument, Morse produced the 
requisite groups of angles by means of types having as many project- 
ing ridges, or teeth as there were to be angles. These being arranged 
in a frame, as required for the message, made the successive contacts 
with the battery, as they were drawn under the lever, or sprina;. Sub- 
sequently, however, a single key was used, by depressing which with 
the finger the circuit might be completed when necessary.' 

The above extract is from the " National Cyclopgedia," published in 
London, in the year 1850. The article may be denominated a labored 
attempt to prove that the telegraph is not an American, but an Eng- 
lish invention. It will be in vain, however, to attempt to satisfy com- 
ing generations that the electro-magnetic telegraph is not the product 
of American genius. Wheatstone, in England, and Steinheil, in 
Bavaria, about the year 1837, invented telegraphs, differing from 
Morse's, and from each other. Wheatstone's is a very inferior one. 
not of the recording kind, but requiring to be watched by one of the 
attendants — the alphabet being made by the deflection of the needle. 
27 



418 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

That of Steinheil, though a recording telegraph, is so complicated and 
delicate, as to be unfit for extended lines. Wherever Morse's instru- 
ment has been carefully examined it has been pronounced the best. 
Already, it has been approved by most of the Governments of the old 
world. In 1851, at a convention held by Austria, Prussia, Saxony, 
Wirtemburg, and Bavaria, for the purpose of determining upon a 
uniform system of telegraphing for Germany, Mr. Morse's instrument, 
by the advice of Steinheil, was selected and declared to be superior to 
any other that had ever been invented. The first foreign acknowl- 
edgment of his invention was by the bestowal of a nishaiij or order — 
the " order of glorj' " — by the Sultan of Turkey. Next comes a gold 
snuff-box, from the King of Prussia, containing the Prussian gold 
medal of scientific merit. Last, from the King of Prussia, the 
" Wirtemberg Gold Medal of Arts and Sciences." In 1838, Morse 
went to England to secure a patent in that country, but was refused, 
upon the pretext, manufactured by Wheatstone and his friends, that 
his invention had been published. The only proof which could be 
adduced was the publication of an extract of the New York " Journal 
of Commerce " in an English periodical devoted to science. 

The first electric telegraph completed in the United States was 
erected between Baltimore and Washington, in 1844, and the first 
public message transmitted was the announcement of the nomination 
by the Baltimore Convention, of James K. Polk, as the Democratic 
candidate for the Presidency. More than twenty thousand miles of 
telegraph have since been erected in this country, and but a few years 
will pass until all parts of our vast domain will be bound together by 
iron wires. 

Many important improvements have been made of late in tele- 
graphing. Whether the system of placing the wire under the ground, 
or that of suspending it upon poles, will ultimately prevail, can not 
be predicted. The most interesting feature of telegraphing, and that 
likely to be attended by the most important results, is the Submarine. 
It has been satisfactorily demonstrated that wires may be so coated 
with gutta percha and other materials as to act under water. " A 
tube," says the National Cyclopaedia, " so constructed, has been carried 
under the sea between Dover and Calais ; and the first communication 
by electric telegraph was made from Cape Grinez to Dover on August 
28, 1850. Tha length from Dover to Cape Grinez is 21 miles. The 
copper wire is one-tenth of an inch in thickness, and is inclosed in a 
solid cylinder of gutta percha half an inch in diameter. The entire 
length of wire is 25 miles, and its weight is one tun, two cwts., 1 
quarter, 10| lbs. The weight of the gutta percha is about four tuns." 



THE TELEGRAPH. 419 

The electric lyrinting telegraph will, perhaps, be regarded rather 
more curious than valuable by genuine mechanics. The machinery is 
complicated, and, we believe, expensive; time, however, may demon- 
strate its practical utility. 

The latest species of telegraphing of which we have heard, is the 
Atmospheric. It is thus described by the Washington correspondent 
of the Detroit " Free Press: " " Mr. Richardson, the inventor of the 
Atmospheric Telegraph, has erected a working model of his invention 
in the room of the Senate Committee on Pensions, where it is visited 
daily by admiring crowds. There is much more in .this than I had 
supposed. Indeed, 1 think it is hazarding little to say that in a few 
years our friends, Coleman & Stetson, of the Astor House, New York, 
or Willard, of this city, may order a fresh salmon from your Macki- 
naw fishermen, and have it placed on their larder in less than ten 
minutes, ' alive and kicking.' It seems difficult to believe this ; and 
yet the means by which such a result is to be accomplished are far 
less extraordinary, and more simple than those by which the magnetic 
telegraph operates, as any one will be satisfied who gives five minutes 
attention to Mr. Richardson's model. This model consists of a tube 
or pipe, having an inch bore, in which runs back and forth a plunger, 
or easily-sliding plug. A miniature mail bag is attached to the back 
end of this plunger, which, by the way, is so constructed that little 
or no air can pass between its edge and the inner surface of the tube. 
When the load has been attached to the plunger, the openings in the 
pipe between the plunger and the point of destination are all closed, 
and made air-tight. A little air pump is then applied, which exhausts 
the atmosphere in this part of the tube, creating a vacuum into which 
the plunger rushes, followed by its load, impelled by the pressure of 
the atmosphere in the rear. It will be seen that just so fast as the 
atmosphere is withdrawn from the tube, and the vacuum is created, 
just so fast the load will follow; and that, therefore, the precise rate 
of speed desired may be acquired, whether that is one mile per hour 
or a thousand. 

" I gave the model a very thorough examination, and raised every 
objection I could think of; but the inventor has a perfectly satisfac- 
tory argument in reply to every objection, and I really can not see 
why the heaviest mails and all express matter may not be carried 
with perfect certainty and ease, and unheard-of rapidity, by means 
of this invention. A company has already been formed, I under- 
stood, for the construction of one of these telegraphic lines, with a 
tube two feet in diameter, between Boston and New York. The 



420 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

experiment lias already been tried with a tube a mile long, and with 
perfect success." 

Professor Morse still indulges the idea of returning to his old pro- 
fession — painting ; so much of his time, however, will necessarily be 
devoted to the business to which he has given so much attention for 
twenty years, an opportunity will probably never arise for him to grat- 
ify his ardent wish to become once more associated with the beautiful 
and classic models of Italy and the Louvre. We only do him justice 
when we assert that he is one of the most intellectual and refined 
characters of the age. His genius, or his learning, alone, would con- 
stitute him an ornament to the proudest galaxy of literary and scien- 
tific men, in the world ; and it is with pride and pleasure we claim 
them both as the property of our country. The period is near at 
hand when the universal voice will pronounce in his favor, and when 
the miserable pretenders of Great Britain that have attempted to 
usurp his honors, will sink to merited oblivion. 

Professor Morse resides at Locust Grove two miles south of Pough- 
keepsie, on the banks of the Hudson. 



RAILROADS OF INDIANA. 421 



RAILROADS OF INDIANA. 

As the prosperity of our State is so intimately identified with our 
raih'oads on the one hand, and the success of our railroads for all 
time is so closely and inseparably connected with the prosperity of 
the State on the other, I have thought it proper to occupy some space 
in the consideration of our railroads, and their effects upon the future 
growth and prosperity of Indiana. 

In order to understand and appreciate the effects of our railroads 
upon every branch of industry and production, as well as upon the 
value of real estate, it is necessary to look at the geographical position 
of the State, the character of the country, the quality of the soil, the 
climate, the mineral wealth to be developed, the susceptibility of the 
lands to cultivation and improvement, the kind and extent of local 
productions, the natural facilities in aid of commerce, and products, 
and whatever may tend to the prosperity of the State, and the suc- 
cess of her public improvements. 

Indiana is bounded on the east by the State of Ohio, on the north 
by the State of Michigan, on the west by the State of Illinois, and on 
south by the Ohio river. She is 276 miles in length, by an average 
width of 142 miles ; contains 33,803 square miles, or 21,637,760 acres. 
She is situated between latitudes 37° 51' and 41° 46'. She contains 
ninety-one counties ; was admitted into the Union in the year 1S16, 
with a constitution prohibiting slavery. The general features of the 
„..«,Le are level, or slightly undulating. There are no mountains or 
high hills in the State, except the hills that fringe the Ohio river. 
The general soil of the State is composed of rich river-bottoms, tim- 
bered uplands and prairies, adapted to all kinds of grain and grasses 
grown in this climate. The State is entirely free from surface stone, 
and the wild lands are generally well timbered with oak, poplar, wal- 
nut, hickory, beech, and sugar upon the uplands ; and with sycamore, 
walnut, hackberry, and elm, and an undergrowth of pawpaw, haws, 
and grapevines on the first bottom. The whole soil may be said to 
be easy of cultivation and eminently productive. The State is well 
watered with living springs and running streams, mostly over pure 
gravelly beds, abounds in mineral wealth, of iron, coal, building rock, 
fire clay, and salt springs. The staple products of Indiana, as best 
adapted to the climate and soil, are wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, 
buckwheat, tobacco, potatoes, flax, hemp, and garden products, fruits 
of all kinds, cattle, horses, mules, hogs, sheep, and indeed whatever 



422 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the climate and seasons will mature, the soil will abundantly produce, 
if properly cultivated. In a word, Indiana yields to no State in the 
Union in point of soil, timber, water, rock, mineral wealth, and gen- 
eral productiveness. 

The character of the State, of her institutions, and the healthiness 
of her climate, may be inferred from the constant and rapid increase 
of her population. In 1800, she contained 4,875 inhabitants ; in 
1810, 24,520; in 1820, 147,178; in 1830,195,853; in 1840,685,- 
866 ; in 1850, 988,416, and at this time not less than 1,500,000. The 
progressive improvements have fully kept pace with the increase of 
population, and at no former period have the manifestations of the 
onward march of the State to that high destiny that awaits her, been 
stronger than at pi-esent. 

The value of taxables of the State, as appears by the report of the 
Auditor for the year 1855, was $301,858,474. The Auditor estimated 
that a new valuation at that time, would probably have given S380,- 
000,000. At this time; in round numbers, we may safely set down 
the taxables of the State at $400,000,000. The product for the year 
1855 was, wheat 6,658,952 bushels; corn, 34,811,902 ; oats, 8,041,- 
919; rye, 226,559; potatoes, 1,170,290; horses, mules, and asses, 
304,028; cattle, 798,419 ; sheep, 882,797; swine, 2,668,572, and this 
with not one acre in ten of the State in cultivation, and not one 
acre in twenty properly tilled. 

Without designing to raise and agitate the vexed question of slav- 
ery, as a State institution, it will not be out of place to say, that the 
growth and prosperity of Indiana, from the wilderness of her territo- 
rial condition, has been owing mainly to her free constitution, and 
the consequent character of her population. The grand secret of 
which is, that free white labor is honorable, bringing into the field of 
enterprise, the active and persevering industry of the Anglo-Saxon 
race, and holding out inducements to the hardy and industrious 
laborers of foreign countries, to make Indiana their home, where, 
from the freedom of her institutions, the equality of her citizens, the 
salubrity of the climate, the fertility of her soil, the facility of her 
communications with the markets for their surplus products, they are 
insured health, comfort, and happiness by their own industry. 

Indiana may be called an inland State; for although she is washed 
on the north by Lake Michigan, on the south by the Ohio river, and 
on the west by the Wabash river, yet no navigable waters penetrate 
her interior. She combines all the elements essential to the suc- 
cess of I'ailroad operations. Lying across the track of all the rail- 
roads connecting the eastern Atlantic States with the Valley of the 



RAILROADS OF INDIANA. 423 

Mississippi, and the still further west to the shores of the Pacific, her 
raih'oads must ever continue to do a heavy, thorough business, 
increasing from year to year, as new roads are added to those already 
built, extending the lines of travel and business into new and more 
distant fields ; while the vast productions of the State, as her 
resources are developed by railroad facilities, must, at all times, fur- 
nish heavy and profitable local freight for the cars. 

It is a matter of regret that while we have in the United States 
more miles of railroad than all the world beside, even to this day we 
have no connected chains of railroads uniting the North and East 
with the South, in the valley of the Mississippi, but still rely upon 
the tardy movements of steamers, running only when the rivers are 
open and at navigable stages, and then contending against rapid cur- 
rents and obstructed navigation. Our railroad enterprises have been 
mostly constructed upon the same parallels of latitude, where the 
fruits ripen at the same time, forbidding an exchange of the same kind 
of products, for the use of the consumers. But the time is coming 
when New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola, Augusta, Charleston, and Gal- 
veston will be connected with Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, and Cleve- 
land, through the capital of our State, by iron rails. When Indiana 
will be on the great railroad highway between the North and the 
South, as she now is between the East and the West ; when the rapid 
transit of the flying cars will exchange the tropical fruits of the South 
for the more substantial products of the North. The citizeits of the 
devoted cities of the South, in times of epidemic, like those that vis- 
ited New Orleans a few years since, when commerce bent her sails for 
happier ports, when the silence of death reigned unbroken, except as 
the sound of the lonely hearse was heard, carrying to the grave the 
recent dead, will have rapid facilities to migrate from the presence of 
disease and death, to the healthy North. The railroad system of the 
United States will never be complete until the Northern Lakes and 
the Southern Gulfs, the Atlantic and the Pacific, are united by unbro- 
ken chains, and rapid transits. 

For the information of persons seeking homes in this great valley, 
and who would prefer locating near railroad facilities, it may be pro- 
per to say something of our railroad system, and of our roads, more 
in detail. Indiana has not, like Illinois and some other States, 
received the patronage of the General Government in the shape of 
lands to aid in the construction of her railroads. Still we may claim 
for our associated enterprise, perhaps, as much credit as any other 
State in the Union. Much, very much, has already been done for the 
State by the construction of railroads by private capital and enter- 



424 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

prise, while much more remains to be clone. The city of Indianapo- 
lis, the capital of the State, is located within five miles of its geo- 
graphical center, in the midst of one of the most beautiful and fertile 
regions of the West ; contains 25,000 inhabitants ; the country, for 
one hundred miles in diameter around the city, may be termed an 
improved plain, admirably adapted to the construction of railroads in 
every direction, — so much so that Indianapolis and our railroads pre- 
sent upon the map, an appearance not unlike the hub and spokes of 
the wheel of a wagon — the roads, like the spokes, running from the 
center to the circumference in every direction. The city is sur- 
rounded on three sides — the East, the South, and the West — by what 
is called the Union Track, under the charge of a central company, 
composed of the presidents of all the roads centering at the capital. 
Near the center of the city on the south side, the Union Passenger 
Depot is located, 420 feet in length, by 100 feet in width, with five 
tracks inside, handsomely lit up with gas by night. All the passen- 
ger trains of all the roads receive, discharge, and interchange passen- 
gers in this central building. The time each train leaves is shown by 
a stationary Director. Tickets for all the roads are sold at the ofl&ce 
by a single person, who expresses no preference for any particular 
route over another. The entering and leaving of the trains are regu- 
lated by the superintendent of the station, and they move in and out 
with the regularity of clock work at the precise time. The freight 
depots of the several roads are located on their own tracks, and the 
trains switch on and off the Union Track as required. 

This central railroad system, which for simplicity and convenience, 
especially to the traveling public, may challenge the admiration of 
all, was devised, jjlanned, and carried into effect by myself, as presi- 
dent, Austin W. Morris, treasurer, and Thomas A. Morris, chief en- 
gineer of the Bellefontaine, John Brough, president of the Madison, 
and Chauncey Eose, president of the Terre Haute railroad compa- 
nies ; Thomas A. Morris being the chief engineer in the construc- 
tion of the track and buildings. The other railroad companies sub- 
sequently came into the central arrangement, which is found to work 
admirably. 

The roads completed at this time, forming radiating lines from the 
common center, are the following : 

The Terre Haute and Richmond, running from Indianapolis to 
Terre Haute, through the counties of Marion, Hendricks, Putnam, 
Clay, and Vigo, seventy-three miles in length, connecting with the 
Alton and Evansville roads. 

The Madison and Indianapolis, running from Indianapolis to 



INDIANA RAILROADS. 425 

Madison, through the counties of Marion, Johnson, Bartholomew, 
Jennings and Jeflferson, eighty-six miles in length, connecting with 
the Ohio River. 

The Jeffersonville and Indianapolis, running from Indian- 
apolis to Jeffersonville, over the Madison road to Edinburgh, thence 
through the counties of Johnson, Bartholomew, Jackson, Scott, and 
Clark, one hundred and twenty miles, connecting with the Ohio 
River. 

The Indianapolis and Cincinnati, running in this State from 
Indianapolis to Lawrenceburgh, through the counties of Marian, 
Shelby, Decatur, Ripley, Franklin, and Dearborn, ninety miles, con- 
necting with the Ohio River, and the Ohio and Mississippi road to 
Cincinnati. 

The Indiana Central, running from Indianapolis to Richmond, 
through the counties of Marion, Hancock, Henry and AVayne, seventy- 
five miles in length, connecting with railroads to Dayton and Cincin- 
nati. 

The Indianapolis, Pittsburg and Cleveland, running in this 
State from Indianapolis to Union, through the counties of Marion, 
Hancock, Madison, Delaware and Randolph, eighty-four miles ; con- 
necting with roads to Cleveland, Pittsburg, Columbus, Dayton and 
Cincinnati. 

The Peru and Indianapolis, running from Indianapolis to Peru, 
through the counties of Marion, Hamilton, Tipton, Howard and 
Miami, sixty-five miles ; connecting with the Wabash and Erie canal, 
and the Wabash Valley Railroad. 

The Lafayette and Indianapolis, running from Indianapolis to 
Lafayette, through the counties of Marion, Boone, Clinton and Tippe- 
canoe, sixty-five miles ; connecting with the Wabash and Erie canal, 
and the Wabash Valley, and New Albany and Salem Railroad. 

These roads have extensive connections between their termini, with 
other completed cross and intersecting lines. Indeed, directly and 
indirectly the whole of the railroads in the State, unite and center in 
the great Union Passenger Depot at the Capital, giving an interchange 
of passengers daily, of not less than 4000 between the trains. 

I have only named specially, the lines of roads that run their trains 
directly from the center of the system. It remains to notice those 
that pass through the State in other directions. 

The Ohio and Mississippi, running directly from Cincinnati to 
St. Louis, enters the State near Lawrenceburgh, at the great Miami, 
runs through the counties of Dearborn, Ripley, Jennings, Jackson, 
Lawrence, Orange, Martin, Davies and Knox in this State, 155 miles; 



426 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

connecting witliin the State witli several roads running directly to 
Indianapolis. 

The New Albany and Salem, running from New Albany on the 
Ohio river, to Michigan city on Lake Michigan, through the counties 
of Floyd, Clark, Washington, Orange, Lawrence, Monroe, Owen, Put- 
nam, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, White, Pulaski, Starke and Laporte, 
260 miles in length ; connecting at its northern terminus with the lake, 
and the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana railroads, and inter- 
mediately with several railroads running directly to Indianapolis. 

The Northern Indiana enters the State near the northeast corner 
of the county of Elkhart, running through the counties of Elkhart, 
St. Joseph, Laporte, Porter and Lake, ninety-five miles ; connecting 
with the Lake Shore Road east, the lines to Chicago west, and the 
New Albany and Salem Road, south. 

The Michigan Southern enters the State in the county of Laporte, 
near Michigan city, runs through the counties of Laporte, Porter and 
Lake, forty-five miles ; connecting with Roads to Chicago, Detroit and 
Toledo, and with the New Albany and Salem Road, and indirectly 
with Indianapolis. 

The Evansville and Crawpordsville, running from Evansville 
to Terre Haute, through the counties of Vanderburgh, Gribson, Knox, 
Sullivan and Vigo, 109 miles; connecting at Evansville with the Ohio 
river, at Terre Haute, with the Alton, and the Terre Haute and Rich- 
mond Roads, and intermediate at Vincennes, with the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi Road. 

The Martinsville and Franklin, running through the counties 
of Morgan and Johnson, twenty-five miles in length ; connects with 
the Madison and Indianapolis Road at Franklin, and with the line of 
the Evansville and Indianapolis projected road. 

The Edinburgh and Shelbyville, running through the counties 
of Johnson and Shelby, fifteen miles in length ; connects with the 
Madison and Indianapolis line at Edinburgh, and with the Knights- 
town, Rushville and Cincinnati roads at Shelbyville. 

The Shelbyville and Knightstown, running through the coun- 
ties of Shelby, Rush, and Henry, twenty-five miles ; connecting at 
Shelbyville, with the Rushville, Edinburgh and Indianapolis and 
Cincinnati roads, and at Knightstown, with the Indiana Central. 

The Rushville and Shelbyville, running through the counties 
of Shelby and Rush, twenty miles ; connecting at Shelbyville with the 
railroads centering there. 

The Richmond, Newcastle and Chicago, running from Rich- 
mond to Logansport, through the counties of Wayne, Henry, Madison, 



INDIANA EAILROADS. 427 

Tipton, Howard and Cass, 110 miles; connecting at Kiclimond, with 
roads to Dayton and Cincinnati ; at Logansport, with the canal and the 
Wabash Valley Road, and intermediately with roads running directly 
to Indianapolis. 

The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago, enters the State in 
the county of Allen, runs through the counties of Allen, Whitley, 
Kosciusko, Marshall, Starke, Laporte, Porter and Lake, 160 miles. 

The Laporte and Plymouth, runs through the counties of La- 
porte, St. Joseph and Marshall, thirty miles ; and connects with the 
Northern Indiana Road at Laporte. 

The Wabash Valley, from Toledo to St. Louis, enters the State 
in the county of Allen, and runs through the counties of Allen, 
Huntington, Wabash, Miami, Cass, Carrol, Tippecanoe, Fountain and 
Warren, 175 miles. 

By the foregoing, which is believed to be substantially correct it 
will be seen that there are six hundred and fifty miles of railroads, 
running through thirty counties, that connect directly in the central 
Union Passenger depot at the capital : and other twelve hundred and 
nine miles, running through thirty six counties connecting with these 
railroads, showing that we have eighteen hundred and fifty miles of 
railroads, giving facilities to sixty-six counties, leaving twenty-five 
counties to be yet supplied by roads in process of construction or con- 
templation. These are the counties of Posey, Warrick, Perry, Dubois, 
Spencer, Pike, Crawford, Harrison, Brown, Switzerland, Ohio, Fay- 
ette, Union, Jay, Blackford, Grant, Wells, Adams, De Kalb, Noble, 
Steuben, Lagrange, Fulton, Jasper and Benton ; and of these the coun- 
ties of Posey, Warrick, Perry, Spencer, Harrison, Crawford, Switzer- 
land and Ohio, lie on the Ohio River. 

The following roads are in process of construction and are more or 
less advanced. The Indiana and HUnois Central, connecting the cap- 
itals of these States by a direct line, running through the counties of 
Marion, Hendricks, Putnam and Parke, sixty-five miles. This will be 
an important road when completed, to the central railroads, as well as 
to the capitals of these States. 

The EvansviUe, Indianapolis and Cleveland Straight Line running 
through the counties of Vanderburg, Warrick, Gibson, Pike, Davies, 
Greene, Owen, Morgan, and Marion, one hundred and fifty five miles. 
This road when completed must prove very important to the railroad 
systems of the center, as well as to the capital, and the city of Evans- 
ville. 

The Junction running through the counties of Union, Fayette, Rush, 
Shelby, Hancock, and Marion, eighty miles to the capital. This road 



428 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

will be important, especially to the country through which it runs, 
one of the best in the State. 

The Cincinnati^ Union and Fort Wayne running through the coun- 
ties of Randolph, Jay, Adams, and Allen, sixty-five miles. This road 
is designed to form a connecting link between the railroads centering 
at Union, with those running into Forte Wayne, and as such must 
become important, as it runs through a fine country. 

The Marion and Mississinawa Valley, running through the counties 
of Randolph, Delaware, Grant, Wabash and 3Iiami, ninety miles. This 
road is intended as a connecting link between the roads centerins; at 
Union, and those intersecting at Peru, and must prove a good line, as 
besides its through business, its local freights will be heavy, the Mis- 
sissinawa Valley being highly productive. 

The Fort Wiiyni', Winchester and Richmond. The line of this road 
runs through the counties of Wayne, Randolph, Jay, Wells and Allen, 
one hundred miles, and is designed to be a direct line from Fort Wayne 
to Cincinnati. When completed it will be a valuable road to the coun- 
try through which it runs, and must do considerable through business. 

The Fort Wayne and Southern, running from Fort Waj ne through the 
counties of Allen, W^ells, Blackford, Delaware, Henry, Rush, Jennings, 
Jefierson, Scott, and Clarke, two hundred and twenty-five miles. The 
design of the projectors of this line was, to connect Fort Wayne 
with the city of Louisville, running through the county seats of the 
tier of counties named to Jeffersonville, and there tunneling the Ohio 
river to Louisville. The work of grading has been for some time in 
progress on the south end of the road. 

Companies have been associated under our general laws to con- 
struct other projected roads, but the change of times, the stringency of 
money matters, and the great difficulty of making negotiations, have, 
at least for the time being, suspended operations upon them, perhaps 
to be resumed at a more propitious time, as it is said that railroads are 
like 

" Freedom's battles once begun. 

Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though baffled oft, are ever won." 

I have said enough to show that the railroads of Indiana must, for 
all time, be closely identified with the prosperity of her citizens, and 
that there must ever be reciprocal relations between their interests and 
those of the State, requiring liberality and diligence in all that con- 
cerns their relations. 

It may not be improper here to give the instructions of Judge 
McLean to the jury, in a recent case in the Circuit Court of the Uni- 



INDIANA EAILROADS. 429 

ted States, involving the liability of a railroad company for injuries to 
a passenger, by the overturning of the cars, running over an ox at 
night, unseen by the engineer. The judge said : " The proof of no 
want of diligence and care lies on the railroad company ; that the acci- 
dent being proved is prima facie evidence of negligence ; that the 
company were bound to know that their roads and running machinery 
were in good repair ; that the utmost care and caution are required 
of the railroad company running cars, to excuse accidents ; that every 
one, who has any thing to do with the running of trains, must be at 
his proper place, faithfully and diligently doing his duty, with every 
possible care to insure the safety of passengers, or the company will 
be liable for accidents ; that every person that travels in the cars must, 
necessarily, run some risk, as the company are not insurers against all 
sorts of accidents, under all circumstances, but are bound to the high- 
est degree of diligence and care possible ; that if the ox tliat threw the 
cars off the track, could have been seen, and guarded against by the 
utmost foresight and care on the part of the engineer, it was negli- 
gence on his part not to do so ; but if no human prudence, or care, 
could have avoided the accident, the railroad company will be 
excused." 

At a time in the history of the country Avhen the public mind is 
much agitated about new sections of the West, as the better selection 
for settlement and cultivation ; when the vast regions, extending west 
of the Mississippi to the Rocky JMountains, and still further to the 
Pacific Ocean, are being explored by the hardy and industrious emi- 
grants from the Eastern States, as well as from foreign countries, with 
a view to settlement, we may be excused for directing the eye of such 
emigrants to our State, as affording greater advantages for the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, than can be realized in any section of country, west 
or north of the Mississippi. The soil of the State, in fertility is equal, 
to that of any other section of the Valley. The State lies much nearer 
to the great markets of the world, than the country west of the Mis- 
sissippi — and the cost of transporting the products is consequently 
much less. The State is a finely-timbered country, well watered with 
living springs and running streams. Owing to the fact, that the best 
part of the State- lies south of the great thoroughfare of travel from 
the East to the West, and that until recently we have liad no railroads 
running across the south part of the State, our lands have not 
advanced in price with the North, and at this time may be bought 
for settlement lower than lands of like quality in Kansas, Nebraska, 
Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin, with infinitely greater advantages for 
settlement. 



430 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



ELIAS HICKS. 

In Jericho, Long Island, in tlie year 1812, there stood a very plain 
two-story frame house ; a door and two small windows below, three 
windows above, three windows in the end, one chimney, a frame kitchen 
with one door, two windows below, and two above, one chimney. This 
I learned when I was there, was the residence of Elias Hicks, the sup- 
posed founder of that sect of the society of Quakers or Friends, known 
to the country as Hicksites, as distinguished from the other sect in the 
division called Orthodox. The religious society of Quakers, or Friends 
as they called themselves, arose in England, under the preaching of 
George Fox, a man of solemn piety, and great power as a preacher ; 
like all reformers, his zeal knew no bounds. He took no pay, but 
looked for his reward alone to his Maker, with a religious confidence 
and courage that disarmed persecution, and even martyrdom at the 
stake of all their terrors. The sect withdrew from the established 
church of England and the other sects, and formed a society of their 
own. They entirely discarded the priesthood, and all the church forms 
of worship, of other sects; they believed in a direct intercourse between 
the spirit of Grod and the spirit of men, and rejected as of man, all 
preparatory studies, written sermons, and forms of pulpit theology, and 
worship. They believed that man could not preach acceptably, but as 
the spirit moved, gave ideas and words, and prompted the discourse ; and 
then women, as well as men, were authorized to preach. They wholly 
denied that the preacher could take pay for his pulpit services, but 
held that his reward was to be sought and obtained from his Divine 
master, as he passed through life, and at the end of his existence in 
another and better world. They repudiated wars, and personal vio- 
lence, as anti-christian, they allowed no steeples on their church build- 
ings. The men and women sat on separate sides of the meeting-houses, 
and transacted business with closed doors between them, having sepa- 
rate clerks, and separate records. Their dress was uniformly plain, 
the men wore drab-colored coats, with round breasts, and stand-up col- 
lars, broad-brimmed hats, and white neck-cloths. The women wore 
plain dresses and bonnets, perfectly alike, as if all were made of the 
same material, over the same block. The interior structure of the 
meeting-house consisted of plain benches, the last three or four, gra- 
dually rising to what they call the gallery, where the preachers and 
elders are seated. As they increase in spirit, they take seats nearer 
and nearer, until at length, after a long life of consistent pietj', they 
feel authorized to ascend the gallery, and preach as the spirit moves 
them, whether men or women. Their meetings often sit quiet, not a 



ELIAS HICKS. 431 

word spoken, not a sound to break the stillness, until at length, it clo- 
ses by the shaking of hands, of two of the elders in the gallery. They 
use no musical instruments, they never sing, they do not hold that 
preaching is an essential part of worship. They silently, and quietly 
turn the mind from the world, and commune in the spirit with the 
Almighty. I have been frequently assured by my Quaker friends, that 
the most precious meetings they ever had were held in silence. They 
use no priest or clergyman, in solemnizing their marriages. The whole 
ceremony is performed by the persons being married. The first step 
is what is called passing meeting ; at one time that ceremony was gone 
through three times, in several months, as I have witnessed it, but in 
more modern times they let one answer the purpose. This occurs 
on a week-day meeting, with closed doors between the men and women. 
The intended husband, takes the intended wife by the hand, in the 
women's end of the house ; they rise. He first speaks, with " Friends 
permission, Divine approbation, I intend marriage with Elizabeth John- 
son." The lady responds, " Friends permission. Divine approbation, 
I intend marriage with James Simpson ; " they then pass through the 
folding doors into the men's end, when the same ceremony is gone 
through, in the same words. A committee of men and women, is then 
appointed to attend at the house after the wedding, and see that all 
things are conducted orderly ; music and dancing are prohibited. 

The wedding day arrives ; the meeting sits together to witness the 
ceremony. The intended arise, and if there is no objection, the gen- 
tleman says ; " In the presence of the Lord, and of this assembly, I 
take Elizabeth Johnson to be my wife, and promise, through Divine 
assistance, to be unto her a kind, and afi'ectionate husband, until death 
separates us." The lady repeats the same, promising to be a kind and 
affectionate wife, till death. A certificate of the marriage is then 
signed by the parties, the elders, and overseers of the meeting, and 
recorded by the clerk. 

The address of the Quakers, like their dress, is plain — thee and thou 
to a single person, and you to a number of persons. Their graveyards 
present the same plainness; no monuments, tombs, vaults, are seen 
there — a small, rough, head and foot stone mark the graves of the rich 
and th.e poor nlike, v.'ith the initials of the name roughly cut upon the 
headstone. They care for their own poor, as a charge upon their 
meeting. Some times their preachers are of that class — still none the 
less esteemed. There is no sect of people on earth of more industry, 
or of greater integrity, or honesty — their word is their bond. Avoid- 
ing the extravagances, fashions, and speculations of the times, they 
seldom incur debts beyond their immediate means; they move quietly 



432 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

and comfortably througli life, and pass to tlieir graves without cere- 
mony or parade. 

From London this sect spread over Great Britain and North Amer- 
ica, including the United States and Canada. "William Penn, the 
founder of Philadelphia, and at one time Governor of Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey, was the great leader of the Society of Friends in the 
United States. Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, was the seat 
of their first meetings. In my youthful days I frequently heard their 
great preachers — John Simpson, Henry Hull, Jesse Kersey, Hannah 
Kirkbride, James Simpson, John Comly, Amos Hillborn, Elias Hicks. 
Charles Shoemaker, Charles Osborn, Edward Hicks, Richard Mott. 
Their doctrines were strictly trinitarian, so far as I was capable of 
judging, and so remained up to the division of the society — which 
commencing about religious doctrines, finally led to disjjutcs in relation 
to discipline and government. The dissension spread throughout the 
whole church, and afi'ected even the relations of private life. It arrayed 
two distinct and separate parties in the society, known as '■ Hicksites " 
and '• Orthodox," both of them highly respectable in point of numbers 
as well as character. The Hicksites contended that they were the 
true Friends ; and the Orthodox insisted that they were the followers 
of George Fox and William Penn, and that the Hicksites were seeed- 
ers from the original society. Tlie Orthodox based their religious 
belief upon John x: 30, and kindred passages of Scripture; while 
Elias Hicks, and his cousin Edward Hicks, with that division of the 
sect, based their religious belief upon John xiv : 28, and kindred 
Scriptural passages. 

Elias Hicks, the subject of this sketch, received but a common 
English education. His mind was of a very high order. As a 
preacher he was plain, distinct, powerful, sublime, warming and melt- 
ing his hearers like the sun at noonday — his mission, he said, was 
that of love. His subject was often founded upon the Scriptural 
declaration, " God is love." When he came West, in 1828, at the 
age of eighty years, he preached one of his great sermons in Wayne 
county. He looked venerable, and old — like the ripe sheaf, ready 
for the harvest. His locks white, his eyes sunken, his cheeks fur- 
rowed, his chin projecting, his step feeble and slow ; still he seemed 
filled with what he said his mission was — love to the whole human 
race. He returned to his home, at Jericho, Long Island, and on the 
14th day of February, 1830, breathed his last, was interred there, in 
Friends' burying-ground, without parade or ceremony, and lies sleep- 
ing in his grave, with a small rough stone at his head, with the letters 
E. H. rudely cut upon it. 



TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 433 



TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 

The evening of tlie 25tli day of February, 1842, at (he Hall of 
the House of Representatives at Washington City, had been desig- 
nated as the time and place for the meeting of the United States 
Total Abstinence Society. It was late before my business would per- 
mit me to go over from my room. I found the Hall filled with Mem- 
bers of Congress and citizens. The meeting was organized, and the 
opening speech made by Gov. Briggs, of Massachusetts. Dr. Sewall, 
of Washington City, a brother-in-law of Rufus Choate, followed, 
and exhibited his drawing of the human stomach under the diiferent 
stages of intemperance to the death of the victim by delirium tre- 
mens. Gov. Gilmer, of Virginia, Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky. 
and Gov. Wise, of Virginia, each addressed the assembly in thrilling 
speeches. It was a night long to be remembered by all who were 
present. The engraved pictures of the stomach of the drunkard, by 
Dr. Sewall, presented an argument in favor of total abstinence from 
every intoxicating drink, more conclusive than any thing I had ever 
seen or witnessed. I give, for the benefit of the reader, extracts from 
the speeches of these distinguished men, on that highly important 
subject, that will be read with deep interest. 

EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF GOV. BRIGGS. 

" The master-vice, which was checked by the first vigorous action of 
the old societies, again broke out in all its fury. The votaries of 
Bacchus began to jeer their temperance neighbors with the cry of reac- 
tion. If ardent spirits were not drank, excesses in the use of other 
intoxicating liquors could not be charged as violations of the pledge. 
Most of those societies, though established in good faith, and though 
for a while they succeeded in arousing the public mind to a sense of 
danger, have lost their efiiciency, and many of them have fallen into 
decay. Among them the old Congressional Society, which struggled 
hard for existence, under the tonic influence of all sorts of stimulants, 
not called by the name of alcohol, at length died of that very intem- 
perance which it was instituted to prevent. How could it have been 
otherwise ? Who could reasonably hope for the success of a temper- 
ance society which held the pledge in one hand and a hottle of cluim- 
pagne in the other? How could they succeed? For, while they 
denounced ' raging strong drink ' as an enemy, they welcomed the 
mocker as a friend. And what a friend to the cause of temperance ! 
Alcohol is the intoxicating, poisonous ingredient which makes ardent 
28 



434 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

spirits so destructive to the liumau system ; and yet, the wines in 
common use, to say nothing of the unhealthy drugs which are mixed 
up in them, contain from one quarter to one-half the quantity of 
alcohol that is found in brandy. It was icine which inflamed the pas- 
sions of Philip's mad son, and made him strike the dagger into the 
heart of his best friend. The same liquor produced that last debauch 
which suddenly put an end to his existence, in the morning of his 
days, and amid the splendor of his triumphs. It is icine which, in 
the graphic language of Holy Writ, brings to those who tarry at its 
banquets, ' wo, and sorrow, and contentions, and babbling, and redness 
of eyes, and wounds without a cause.' It is wine which, in a more 
pure and unadulterated form than it is found among us, covers 
modern France with the desolation of drunkenness, and fills bright 
Italy with tears. 

" Mr. Delevan, the enlightened and indomitable friend of this cause, 
says that, in a conversation with the King of the French on this sub- 
ject, the King told him, with emphasis, ^tlie dntnlrnness of France is 
on wine.' The prevalence of this vice in that country is confirmed by 
our own countryman, I. F. Cooper, from his own observation of its 
existence. The Rev. Dr. Hewitt, of Connecticut, who visited France 
for the purpose of learning the real facts in relation to this matter, 
says : ' We have heard it affirmed that France is a wine-drinking, but 
still a temperate country. The latter is entirely false. The common 
people there are burnt up with wine, and look exactly like the cidcr- 
hrandy drinkers of Connecticut, and the New England rum drinkers 
of Massachusetts.' 

'• Mr. Greenough, our distinguished fellow-citizen, now in Florence, 
in a letter to Mr. Delevan, says : ' The use of wine in Italy produces 
most of the bad effects of ardent spirits as misused in our country, 
and is, perhaps, as being more gradual in its operation, more insidi- 
ous. Several of the most eminent of the medical men are notoriously 
opposed to its use, and declare it apo/sow.' After stating other facts, 
he says : ' When I add to this, that every severe winter destroys 
hundreds of the aged, infants, and females, for the want of proper 
lodging and clothing, you may form some idea of its probable influ- 
ence on their thrift and health.' Lord Acton, Supreme Judge of 
Eome, informed Mr. Delevan, ' that all, or nearly all, the crime of that 
city originated in the use of wine.' The evidences of the injurious 
efi"ects of wine upon the higher classes of society in our own country, 
are too numerous and too melancholy to require a recital here. If 
the opulent and the fashionable, against the warning of the past and 



TOTAL ABSTIXENCE. 435 

the expostulation of reason, continue to use it as they have used it, 
hereafter many a noble genius will be brought low, and many, many 
a heart will be pierced with sorrow." 

DR. SEW all's remarks. 

" Mr. President : in seconding the resolution just oifered, I beg 
leave to make a few remarks in support of the sentiments which it 
contains, and principally with a view to explain the design of the 
enlarged drawings of the drunkard's stomach which are before you 
this evening. While, sir, the effects of alcoholic drinks upon the 
moral and intellectual character of man have been always perpetually 
pressed upon the consideration of the public, and their evil conse- 
quences presented in a thousand lights, and illustrated by a thousand 
examples, their effects upon the physical constitution have been passed 
over in silence, or only slightly touched. In order to render this 
subject the more obvious and impressive, and to bring it up to the 
position which I am sure it should occupy, and especially that it may 
speak to the eye as well as the ear, I have, by the aid of an artist, 
delineated on canvas some of the principal effects of alcohol upon 
the stomach, as they have fallen under my professional observations 
and dissections — effects which invariably follow, to a greater or less 
extent, the habitual use of this narcotic poison. I have selected the 
stomach for the purpose, not because the other organs remain unin- 
fluenced by its use (for this is not the fact), but because it is here 
that alcohol makes its first and strongest impression ; because the 
healthy condition of this organ, and the due performance of its func- 
tions, are indispensable to the healthy performance of every other 
function ; and because, too, the stomach, by the great law of sympathy, 
is closely connected with every other part of the system. When the 
stomach is poisoned, every other part feels the impression ; when this 
organ suffers, every other organ sympathizes and suffers with it. But 
before I enter upon the pathology of drunkenness. I must ask your 
attention, for a few moments, to the anatomy and physiology of the 
digestive organs." 

Here the Doctor gave a brief description of the digestive apparatus, 
explained the object of its functions, and the manner in which they 
are performed. During this part of the lecture, the dependence of 
all the other functions of the body upon that of digestion, and the 
necessity of preserving the stomach unimpaired, Avas clearly and forc- 
ibly illustrated. The Doctor then proceeded as follows : 

*' Upon this canvas you have eight different representations of the 
human stomach, delineating the principal morbid changes produced 



436 EARLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

upon the organ by the use of alcoholic drinks, in the various stages 
and degrees of inebriation, from that of the temperate drinker down 
to the lowest and last stage of debauchery and ruin. The stomach, 
IS here delineated, is of its natural form, but enlarged to about nine 
times its natural capacity. It is represented as distended to its full 
dimensions, and then cut open by a transverse incision, so that the 
internal surface of the organ is exposed to view. In the first figure 
you have represented the inner surface of the healthy stomach, which 
will serve as a standard of comparison. Every deviation from this, 
therefore, is to be regarded as a departure from the healthy state of 
the organ. " The Doctor then gave a particular description of the 
stomach of (he temperate drinJcer, and explained the cause of the 
change of color of the inner sui-fu-e of the organ, and of the enlarged 
condition of its blood-vessels. He then took up, successively, the 
stomach of the confirmed drunkard, the idcerated stomach of the drunh- 
ard, the stomach of the drunhard after a debauch, the scirrhvs stomach 
of the drunkard, the scirrhus and cancerous stomach of the drunkard, 
and, finally, the stejmach of the drunkard who dies of deUrivm tremens, 
each of which was delineated on the canvas. But this important and 
most interesting part of his description was not fully reported, because 
the substance of it is already published in his " Pathology of Drunk- 
enness, illustrated by plates, in a letter addressed to Edward C. 
Delevan, Esq." 

In the course of his demonstrations, the Doctor explained the 
principles upon which the stomach became diseased from the use of 
alcohol, its blood-vessels engorged, and its coats inflamed and ulcera- 
ted. He demonstrated the change from disease to health which takes 
place in the stomach of the reformed drunkard, and illustrated the 
principle upon which this change is effected upon one's ceasing to 
drink. He gave the physiological reason why total abstinence from 
all that intoxicates is the only means by which the inebriate can be 
reformed, and the temperate rendered secure from the vice of drunk- 
enness. He demonstrated the safety and necessity of adopting the 
practice of total abstinence at once, even by the far-gone drunkard, 
instead of tapering oif by degrees, or of winding up a life of debauch- 
ery by substituting one form of alcoholic drink for that of another. 
The Doctor then observed : " But it should be borne in mind that 
while alcoholic drinks make their first and strongest impression upon 
the stomach, their morbid efi'ects are not limited to this organ ; the 
whole of the intestinal canal participates more or less in their influ- 
ence. The internal coat becomes irritated, inflamed, softened, and 
ulcerated, and occasionally aff"ected with those other organic changes 



TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 437 

delineated in the drawings of the stomach. Nor are the conserpiences 
of intemperance confined to the digestive canal alone. The distant 
parts of the body become in time affected also. The liver, the brain, the 
heart, the lungs, and the kidneys, become the seat of alcoholic influ- 
ence — an influence which is transmitted to them in two ways. The 
first is upon the principle of sympathy ; the second is through the 
medium of absorption and of the circulation, and the immediate action 
of the alcoholic principle upon the organs as it passes through them, 
mingled with the blood. Both may be illustrated by familiar exam- 
ples. The individual who has become exhausted by labor and fast- 
ing, finds his muscular power diminished and his whole system 
enfeebled. Upon partaking of his food, his strength is immediately 
restored — restored long before his food is digested, or any nourish- 
ment can be derived from it. This effect is produced by the stimulus 
of the food upon the stomach, which impression is transmitted to all 
the other organs of the body through the medium of the nervous sys- 
tem, upon the principle of sympathy. The second mode, that through 
the medium of absorption and of the circulation, may be shown by 
two facts. The odor of the drunkard's breath furnishes us with one 
of the earliest indications of intemperance. This is occasioned by 
the exhalation of the alcoholic principle from the bronchial vessels 
and air-cells of the lungs ; not of pure alcohol, as taken into the 
stomach, but as it has been absorbed and become mingled with the 
blood, and subjected to the action of the different organs of the body ; 
and, not containing any principle which contributes to the nourish- 
ment or renovation of the system, is cast out with the other excretions 
as poisonous and hurtful. 

" Magendie long since ascertained, by experiment, that diluted alco- 
hol, when subjected to the absorbing power of the veins, is taken up 
by them, mingled with the blood, and afterward passes off by the pul- 
monary exhalants unchanged. The case of a drunkard is mentioned, 
who used to amuse hi§ comrades by passing his breath through a nar- 
row tube, and setting it on fire as it issued from it. But time would 
fail me were I to attempt an account of half the jjathology of drunk- 
enness. JDyqx'psia, jatiudice, einaciation, corpulence^ dropsy, ulcers, 
rheumatism., gout, tremors, palpitation, hysteria, epilepsy, palsy, leth- 
argy, apoplexy, melancholy, madness, delirium tremens, and premature 
old age, compose but a small part of the catalogue of the diseases 
produced by alcoholic drinks. Indeed, there is scarcely a morbid 
affection to which the human body is liable, that has not, in one way 
or another, been produced by them ; there is not a disease but they 
have aggravated, nor a predisposition to disease which they have not 



438 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

called into action ; and, altliougli tlieir effects are, in some degree, 
modified by age and temperament, by habit and occupation, by cli- 
mate and seasons of the year, and even by the intoxicating agent 
itself, yet the general and ultimate consequences are the same. 

" But there is another principle on which the use of alcohol predis- 
poses the drunkard to disease and death. It acts on the blood, im- 
pairs its vitality, deprives it of its red color, and thereby renders it 
unfit to stimulate the heart and other organs through which it circu- 
lates — unfit, also, to supply the materials for the different secretions, 
and to renovate the different tissues of the body, as well as to sustain 
the energy of the brain — offices which it can perform only while it 
retains the vermillion color and other arterial properties. The blood 
of the drunkard is several shades darker in its color than that of tem- 
perate persons, and also coagulates less readily and firmly, and is 
loaded with serum — appearances which indicate that it has exchanged 
its arterial properties for those of venous blood. This is the cause 
of the livid complexion of the inebriate, which so strongly marks 
him at the advanced stage of intemperance. Hence, too, all the func- 
tions of his body are sluggish and irregular, and the whole system 
loses its tone and energy. If alcohol, when taken into the system, 
exhausts the vital principle of the whole, it destroys the vital princi- 
ple of the blood, also, and if taken in large quantities produces sud- 
den death, in which case the blood, as in death produced by light- 
ning, by opium, or by violent and long-continued exertion, does not 
coagulate." 

MR. GILMORE's remarks. 

" I can not suppose that it is necessary at this time, or in this coun- 
try, to employ arguments to prove the evils of intemperance, or the 
advantages of temperance. We have had to-night the experience of 
those who can speak of what they have suffered in one condition, and 
enjoyed in the other — an experience which is now not more useful to 
others than it is honorable to themselves. We have seen the effects 
of drunkenness on the physical system, as in a mirror. The human 
stomach is exposed in the plates before us, in all the horrible and 
unnatural aspects which it is made to assume by the use of alcohol ; 
and, if we could see as plainly its effects on the brain, on the heart, 
on the mind, the memory, the affections, the fooulties, the feelings, 
the character of the man, the picture would be more than mortal eyes 
could endure. Who that has seen the drunkard, requires proof of the 
effects of intemperance, on its victim and on society? He reels and 
staggers before you, an animated corpse, a breathing automaton, who 
has banished reason from her throne, and invited a demon to usurp 



TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 439 

the place of his immortal spirit. Life has no luxury for him. Exist- 
ence is a burden, which he seems scarcely able to endure for the brief 
space allotted to him on earth. What relief then, can he find in death 
— what repose in eternity ? It is gratifying to turn from the contem- 
plation of the evils of this degrading vice, and to regard the means 
of reformation, as well as the strongholds of defense, against its 
insidious approaches, which modern philanthrophy has provided. 

" Conspicuous among these moral trophies of an age abounding in 
triumphs of ' peace and good will toward men,' stands this society 
which holds its first meeting in this Hall to-night. We assemble, sir, 
under auspicious circumstances — circumstances which warrant the 
hope, that a work so well begun, will be happily consummated. It 
becomes us, the Representatives of this great Republic, to appeal to 
the youth of our country, by our language and our example. The 
free institutions which we so dearly cherish, are founded on the 
hypothesis, that man is capable of self-government. We are the 
depositories of a very high trust, involving all the good and all the 
evil of government to ourselves, and to many millions of our country- 
men. Self-government is the essence of freedom. Without that 
power of self-control which makes man the master of his own spirit, 
whatever his condition in life may be, he is the slave of some passion 
— the victim of a cruel bondage, which destroys his own independence 
and renders him, more or less, unfit to regulate the destinies of others. 
The victory over one's-self — the discipline of those evil propensities, 
those imperfections of our nature, which sometimes render the best 
of us dangerous to himself and to others ; is necessary to elevate man 
to the true standard of freedom and independence." 

HON. THOMAS F. MARSHALL, 

Rose and addressed the auditory nearly as follows : 
" There is no danger that a man of lofty mind, a high-spirited, well- 
educated gentleman, will stoop to other vices which sink and degrade 
humanity. He will not lie ; he can not steal : he is incapable of dis- 
honor. Death itself can not drive him to the perpetration of baseness. 
Poverty, want, starvation may assail him ; he is proof against them 
all. This alone can drag his virtue down ; and against it, what genius 
can guard, what magnanimity can shield us? Who has not seen the 
most towering, the most majestic sink, vanquished beneath its powers? 
Who has not seen genius prostrate, courage disarmed, manhood with- 
ered, before the march of this fell destroyer of all that is great and 
bright and beautiful. It seems, indeed, as if, with the cunning malice 
of tyranny, and the ambitious policy of a conqueror, this grim king 



440 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

selects the loftiest victims, and from those who otherwise are formed 
to be the ornament and the strength of their land and race. Certain 
it is, that political ambition or elevation, is of itself no safeguard. I 
have been told, that the last ghastly spectacle exhibited to us to-night 
— the ruined stomach of a dead inebriate, once the living receptacle 
of God's good and healthful gifts, and so by him intended to remain ; 
was part of the frame of a distinguished statesman and member of this 
House ; a man of genius and eloquence, whose mind led once the 
councils of his own State, and whose voice has often resounded through 
this Hall, while listening thousands hung with rapture upon its accents. 
Look on that picture, and imagine, if you can, the horrors which must 
have preceded a fate like that. 

" But, sir, this poison stops not with physical destruction ; it is over 
the intellectual and moral man that it achieves its greatest triumphs. 
The erect form, the muscular limb, the taper wrist — Oh ! how they 
change under the transforming touch of this monster magician. But 
it is not the trembling limb, the bloated body, the bleared and dimmed 
eye, the sluggish ear, the blotched and ulcerated skin, the poisoned 
breath, the destruction of strength and cleanliness and beauty, which 
most effectually test the power, and mark the wrecks with which the 
demon strews his path — it is the overthrow of the moral principle, 
the extinction of conscience, sensibility to what is right and wrong, 
charity, domestic affection ; all, all that makes us men — the utter dis- 
persion of the moral elements which hold the world together, and the 
entire implication of the weak and the innocent ; the mother, the wife, 
the infant, in suffering for crimes of which they are the most wretched, 
yet the guiltless victims. 

" These are the proudest trophies, the most splendid fruits of the 
victories of the wine-cup. Other vices, other crimes, leave the phys- 
ical, the intellectual, the moral man capable of repentance, of amend- 
ment, and of action ; but this destroys him throughout — body, mind, 
and conscience — yet leaves the wretch survivor of himself. Would, 
sir, that some of the thrilling confessions and narratives disclosed in 
those homely associations of ours, in a distant part of the city, could 
be heard by this audience, as I have heard them — the confessions and 
narratives of men whom the indefatigable benevolence of the Vigilant 
Society cf Total Abstinence, has rescued from the very kennel. 
They are not your stately, refined, educated gentlemen, who quaff 
their rich and costly Madeira, old, and mild, and fragrant, and spark- 
ling, and redolent of the true flavor of the cork — nectar fit for gods 
to sip, taken down bottle after bottle, from day to day, till their com- 
plexions are purple as the crushed grape whose juice they drain — 



TOTAL ABSTINENCE. 441 

till their trembling liiinds can scarce conduct unspilled the fluid to 
their lips — till their feet are swollen and agonized with gout, while 
untold horrors fill the region whose ruin has been to-night laid open 
to our view. And yet they are no drunkards ! Oh, no, no, no, no. 
Drunkards ? Not they ! It is not from such men that we hear in 
our humble ward meetings ; no. They are the once wretched, but 
now rescued victims of what, in our Western world, is called ' white- 
faced whisky,' children of the lowest intemperance, who there appear. 
This tyrant alcohol, like him of whom it is no unapt representative, 
can suit its temptations to men of every grade and fortune, and to 
every diversity of human condition. He holds out an appropriate 
lure to every taste, and draws within his fatal snare the high and the 
low, the learned and the unlearned, the vulgar and the refined. It is 
to the story of the humbler and the poorer, who have been reformed 
by means of that society, with which I was first connected, that I 
have listened witk keenest interest." 

MR. WISE, 

Rose, and addressed the assembled auditory in a speech, the outline 
of which is here presented : 

" There is one object which this society ought especially to aim at, 
and that is to break up the prevalence of a degrading vice among the 
politicians of our land ; I mean the vulgar, base, degrading habit of 
ireating at elections. To prove that there is no necessity for the con- 
tinuance of such a practice, let me here state that I have been five 
times in succession elected to Congress without it, and in open oppo- 
sition to it. I have served now in Congress for ten years, and I began 
my course, as a candidate, as soon as I was Constitutionally eligible ; 
and I was as anxious to get here, and as proud of my seat, as my 
friend from Kentucky declares that he is. I told the people — yes, 
the people even of old-mint-julep Virginia, that I never would consent 
to treat any one of them — (ai^plause) — I never had need to do it. I 
have never asked any thing from them — from a commission of a cap- 
tain of cavalry to that of a member of Congress — that they refused 
me ; and I never gave one of them a drink to procure his favor. 
(Renewed applause.) I have said to them, in alluding to the practice, 
and the ofi"ers of liquor first pressed upon me, ' Gentlemen, this is a 
war of the many against the few ; worse than that, it is a war of many 
against one. I can not stand it. If I drink with one of you, I must 
drink with all ; and that will keep me pretty thoroughly soaked 
throughout the whole campaign. You will destroy me ] you will 
totally unfit me for the task for which you elect me as your Repre- 



442 EAELY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

sentative. It is physically and intellectually impossible tliat I should 
possess a well-balanced mind, after passing through a canvass in which 
I must drink at the rate of a thousand to one. And, more than this, 
if my body could stand it, my purse can not ; and if you are to be 
represented by the mere power of money and of liquor, you must 
select some other agent to serve you in Congress. I propose, if chosen, 
to represent you merely by the personal gifts which nature has 
bestowed upon me.' Such was my reasoning with my constituents, 
and I have never lost a vote by it. When they offered me the can of 
grog, my answer has been, ' I will drink with you in one of the 
ingredients, and you shall drink with me in the other ; I will take the 
water, and leave the brandy to you.' " (Applause.) 



YOUTHFUL EXCUESIOI^. 443 



YOUTHFUL EXCURSION. 

This sketcli is iuteuded for the eye of my young readers. My 
father died in the year 1813, when I was nineteen years of age. I 
had seen very little of the world ; thirty miles was the furthest I had 
ever been from home. I longed to see beyond the river hills of the 
Delaware, where I had been raised. With a few dollars in my pocket, 
I left, on foot, to see the world ; a few days up the river brought me 
in sight of Easton, the junction of the Delaware and Lehigh, then a 
small village, now a city ; there I first saw a mountain, the blue 
mountains, in the distance, towering to the skies; crossing the Dela- 
ware, I passed Schooley's mountains, the highest ridges in New Jersey ; 
stopped at Morristown a few days, passed on to New York, gazed up 
and down the city, with astonishment and delight ; soon tired with 
the dullness of the place, sat down at the wharf on the North river, 
thinking what I would do next; saw a sloop bound for Newburg, 
went aboard, engaged a passage, for a dollar, finding my own board, 
laid in a stock of crackers and dried beef for the trip. There were 
but two steamboats at that time on the North or Hudson river, the 
" Car of Neptune " and the " Fire Fly." They were small boats, and 
were engaged at the time in bringing down troops from the towns up 
the river. We were to sail the evening I went aboard, but the wind 
blew strongly down the river, and we lay by until morning, when we 
cut loose from the dock, and for the first time I was a passenger on a 
sail vessel ; the wind still blew against us, and we were compelled to 
beat up by running across the river, and shifting our sails upon the 
tack. It was a very interesting trip to me, the scenery on the Hudson 
was picturesque and grand, the river was filled with sailing vessels, of 
all sizes, passing up and down by us. Sing Sing, Tappan, the Butter- 
milk falls, were soon left behind ; as our little sloop sped through the 
water, dashing the white foam from her prow. West Point, near the 
foot of the Highlands, was in full view : this spot was consecrated to 
my youthful mind, here waved the nation's flag. I asked the captain 
to stop and let me see Fort Putnam. He at once consented, and we 
landed. I now stood on Revolutionary ground, my heart beat quick 
and joyous, I ran up Mount Independence, where stood old Fort Put- 
nam, venerable in its ruins, stern monument of a sterner age ; it had 
survived the assaults of tyranny, and the attempts of treason. I 
stood at the rock from which the chain was stretched across the nar- 
row channel of the river in the time of the Revolution, to prevent the 
passage of the British vessels. While I stood upon old Fort Putnam, 
and cast my eye far down the majestic river toward New York, the 



444 EARLY II^DIAI^A TRIALS. 

scenes of the Revolution, the treason of Arnold, the capture and execu- 
tion of Andre, with a thousand associations, rushed upon me. I 
could have lingei'ed there through the day, but the Captain reminded 
me that it was time to leave. I thanked him for his kindness, went 
aboard, and we sailed up the river with the Highlands in full view. 
We soon entered the narrows, and passed " St. Anthony's Nose," a 
prominent rock of a mountain cliff. Our good sloop was sailing 
beautifully before the wind. The captain and myself were standing 
near the mast, when we were struck by a gust of wind from an open- 
ing between the spurs of the mountain, and in an instant she rolled 
over on her side, and w:e were standing in the water on her deck, our 
hats overboard ; but she righted, and on she sped at high rates. 
Night came on, dark and rainy, we anchored in a cove, took supper, 
and slejit till morning. The sun rose, we weighed anchor, and soon 
passed the narrows, near Madison, and then Newburgh and Fishkill 
landing came in sight. 

Here was the end of my voyage. The sloop was made fast to the 
wharf, I paid my fare, took leave of my captain, stepped upon the 
wharf, and, in a few minutes was ranging the streets of Newburgh, 
looking for what might be seen. Stepping into a tavern to get my 
dinner, I met a youth, like myself, looking at the world. We soon 
agreed to be companions. Dinner over, he proposed that we should 
cross the river and ascend the Fishkill mountain to Solomon's Porch, 
and take one grand view of the country. Right to my hand ; over we 
went in the ferry-boat, landed on the long Fishkill wharf, that reached 
to the middle of the river. The mountain appeared to be close by, 
but after a walk of seven or eight miles we found ourselves, hungry 
and tired, at its base, where we staid till morning. It was a beautiful 
day ; we had an early bre:ikfast, and with buoyant spirits started up 
the narrow road that led to the Porch, on the top of the mountain. 
The distance was about a mile and a half, the road rugged and steep. 
We soon reached the top ; there stood Solomon's Porch, on the top- 
most peak of a spur of the mountain, a small center frame building, 
surrounded on all sides by a porch, with light railings. We walked 
around the circle again and again ; the view in every direction was 
grand, magnificent; on the west, seemed to lie under our feet, New- 
burgh, and the country beyond ; a few miles lower lay New Windsor ; 
the Hudson river, like a small creek to the eye, stretched its serpentine 
length for many miles before us ; to the south lay West Point, in full 
view in the distance ; to the north Poughkeepsie ; to the east the vil- 
lage of Fishkill, and the plains. We felt more than compensated for 
the fatigue of the morning. A gentleman, on the Porch, suggested 



YOUTHFUL EXCURSION. 445 

that we should see the Natural Ice-house before we left the mountain, 
and proposed to conduct us to it. Following our guide, winding 
around the mountain top, over the rocks, descending to the north- 
west some quarter of a mile, over a narrow, dangerous path, our guide 
stopped at the mouth of a cave where the sun had never shone, the 
spurs of the mountain rising from the south and east, and overhanging 
the spot where we stood. " There," said our guide, " is the Natural 
Ice-house ; it has never been empty since water froze in this climate," 
and so it appeared to us. The ice looked solid and firm, in large 
masses ; it was then the first of July. We returned to the Porch, 
descended the mountain, and slept soundly at the same house we had 
the night before. The next morning, highly delighted with the 
excursion of the previous day, we returned to Newburgh, where great 
preparations were being made for the celebration of the fourth of July. 
The battle between the Chesapeake and Shannon, off Boston harbor, 
had been fought, Capt. Lawrence and Lieut. Ludlow had fallen, the 
dying words of the brave Lawrence, " Don't give up the ship," were 
in every mouth. Lieut. Ludlow was a citizen of Newburgh, the nation 
was in the midst of war. Newburgh was filled with officers on the 
recruiting service, the morning of the Fourth was ushered in by the 
firing of cannon and martial music, the streets were filled, the whole 
country was there. Much was to be seen, but one object engrossed the 
attention of all eyes : in the centre of Main street, drawn by ten pair 
of splendid greys, beautifully harnessed, moved along a model war- 
ship, with sails set, the stars and stripes floating from one masthead, 
and from the other a magnificent white banner, inscribed in large 
golden letters, " Don't give up the ship," with " Capt. Lawrence," 
" Lieut. Ludlow," below. It was a beautiful representation of the 
Chesapeake — ■ a solemn memento of those brave officers. The huzzas 
of the multitude rent the air. The day passed off not to be forgotten. 
We went down to the wharf, stepped aboard a sloop bound to New 
York, and next morning, under full sail, we passed AVest Point, home- 
ward bound. There came on a calm, the tide was running against us, 
when our vessel ceased to move, close by the city as we supposed. We 
became impatient, left the sloop, walked out to the highway, there 
stood the milestone — " 16 miles " to New York. The day was hot, 
the road dusty, but there was no faltering about us ; we traveled on to 
the city, which at that time did not extend above Canal street. There 
were no Astor, St. Nicholas, Metropolitan then ; we stopped for the 
night at one of the best houses in the city, inferior in every respect 
to the most common country hotels now. In a few days I was home 
aeain. 



446 EARLY IIS^DIANA TRIALS. 

HORACE GREELEY AND ERASTOS BROOKS. 

As Richard M. Johnson, Vice President of the United States called 
the Senate to order at twelve o'clock, one day of the session, I 
looked up to the front gallery, where the corps of reporters were seated. 
Near the south end of the table, I noticed two young men, pen in hand, 
ready to write down whatever might be said or done. The one was 
Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, and the other Erastus 
Brooks, of the New York Express, as I learned from a Senator that 
sat by me. These distinguished young men in appearance presented 
a wide contrast. Mr. Greeley was small, and slim, white flaxen hair, 
white eye brows, and light grey eyes ; head large, inclined to baldness ; 
high retreating forehead, wide mouth, prominent features, pleasant 
countenance. Mr. Brooks was also below the medium size, his hair, 
eyes, and whiskers, coal black, his forehead square and capacious, his 
complexion dark, his countenance sober. I noticed them daily at 
their desk, their pens in constant motion. I observed the fidelity of 
their brief reports, in their respective papers. There was nothing in 
their appearance at the time, to foreshadow their future distinction, 
not only at the head of the corps editorial of the United States, but 
as the leaders through their respective columns, of the great free soil, 
and American parties in the recent excited political contest, that 
resulted in the success of Mr. Buchanan over Millard Fillmore and 
John C. Fremont. There is perhaps no man now living, who occu- 
pies a larger share of the public mind as a writer than Horace Greeley. 
I atttrlbute this to the fact, that he has devoted so much of his talents 
and time, to the laboring classes, who largely appreciate his motives and 
services. The extensive, almost unbounded circulation of the New 
York Tribune, is mainly owing to the intelligent power of the pen of 
Mr. Greeley. His talents of the highest order, combined with an enei'gy 
that never tires, and a knowledge of facts and occurrences, by weight 
and measure, give to his pen a power seldom found in the writings or 
addresses of others. As a speaker Mr. Greeley is plain, smooth, intel- 
ligible, distinct, unostentatious; at times, beautiful, sublime, eloquent, 
without a seeming effort. I have thought his manner and style more 
like those of Edward Everett than any other speaker 1 have heard. 
Mr. Greeley will always be I'ead with interest, through his editorial col- 
umns, even by those who differ from him politically on account of his 
anti-Slavery sentiments, while his prepared public addresses, abound- 
ing in useful information, will be treasured in our libraries. He is now 
in the full vigor of life, active, energetic, daily infusing his thoughts 
into the public mind, in America and Europe. 



MILTOX GEEGG AND DAVID P. HOLLOWAY. 447 

Erastus Brooks, like Mi*. Greeley, stands among the first editorial 
intellects of the land, of which the columns of the New York Express 
give conclusive evidence. He possesses talents of a superior order, as 
has been shown since he has been in the Senate of New York. Mr. 
Brooks like Mr. Greeley, is as a speaker, plain, unassuming, intelli- 
gent, clear, at times beautiful, eloquent, always listened to with 
interest by his audience. He was the warm supporter of Mr. Fillmore 
at the recent election, on the ground of his standing on the platform 
of the American party, to which Mr. Brooks stood warmly attached, 
and was at the time the candidate of the party for Governor of New 
York, but was defeated. It is not my purpose to speak of these politi- 
cal questions further than they are identified with my personal sketches. 
.Mr. Brooks was in the meridian of life, in fine health, the last time I 
saw him, with time still before him, to do much good as a writer, and 
public speaker. 



MILTON GREGG AND DAVID P. HOLLOWAY. 

While New York has had her eminent editors, Indiana too has 
had hers. It is said to be invidious to draw distinctions, where all 
have done their duty. Indiana owes much, very much, to the press, 
to the enlightened editoral corps, in the formation of the moral stan- 
dard of society. If you will show me the newspaper, I will give you 
the character of the people among whom it circulates. It is not true 
that but little attention is paid to what appears in the papers. No 
class of our citizens occupy a higher position of responsibility than 
the editorial corps. They wield a powerful influence for weal or for 
woe. If the press is vicious, it ministers to the worst of human vices, 
and fills society with every species of licentiousness and wickedness. 
A press controlled by the unprincipled and vicious, is a curse to any 
people ; while the press that maintains a high moral standard is one 
of the most powerful instrumentalities that was ever brought to bear 
upon society, in forming it upon the true basis of intelligence, moral- 
ity, and religion. I feel under great obligations to the conductors of 
the Indiana press, for the high moral tone they have infused into their 
columns, and to none more than to the veteran editors whose names 
stand at the head of this article. I have known them both long and 
well. I have seen them, read them, heard them. I might speak of 
Mr. Gregg as a member of our Legislature, and as a member of our 
Constitutional Convention, where the high order of his talents placed 



448 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

him in the front ranks. I might speak of Mr. Holloway as a member 
of Congress, where he stood deservedly high ; but I chose rather to 
place them in my reminiscences, in the more important positions of 
editors of newspapers, dispersing information, intelligence and moral- 
ity, among the masses. It is there that their lights have shone the 
most brilliantly, because the most valuable to society. They are both 
like Mr. Grreeley and Mr. Brooks, in the meridian of life, in the midst 
of their usefulness devoted to the interests of our State. Long may 
they live to contribute their influence to the good order of our citi- 
zens. 



SKETCHES OF NATURE. 449 

SKETCHES OF NATURE. 

As I sat upon a hanging rock, on the bank of the beautiful Dela- 
ware, in my youthful days, I noticed a large bald eagle, soaring in the 
mid-heaven. Lower and lower he came, in his circles, until at length 
he lighted on a dead limb of a towering sycamore, only a few rods 
below where I was sitting. I sat still, quietly observing his motions. 
In a few minutes, I saw coming from the Jersey shore a large grey 
fish-hawk. The water in the river was as clear as crystal, filled with 
fish of many kinds. The fish-hawk rose in the air, some hundred 
feet above the water ; stood upon his wings; down he went, like a 
falling arrow, under the water, out of sight. In a moment up he 
came with a large struggling fish in his claws. As he rose with his 
prey above the water, the bald eagle stepped from his perch, and with 
a swoop that whizzed in the air, flew directly at the fish-hawk. The 
hawk, with a shriek, dropped the fish ; the eagle caught it in his talons 
before it reached the water, and brought it back to the sycamore limb, 
where he commenced his morning repast. Here was a bird of prey, 
led by the instinct of nature, to provide for his wants by the labor 
and toil of another of his species weaker than himself. How illus- 
trative of the world ! How few obtain the means they live upon by 
their own labor. How many, like the bald eagle, live upon the means 
procured by the weaker of their race and with just as little remorse 
of conscience as the eagle, when robbing the hawk of his food. 

The Beaver had dammed one of the small rivers of the West, for 
purposes consistent with the instinct of his nature. The Indian trap- 
pers had stealthily examined the dam and habitations of the beaver. 
One evening, an experienced Indian trapper was seen leaving the 
lodge, with a short round post, cut from a sapling, fresh peeled of its 
bark, on his back, and a large beaver-trap, under his arm. He crept 
through the brush quietly to the river, above the dam, where a neck 
of dry land projected. There he drove in his post, in full view of the 
dam and beaver holes, below. The trap was set — placei under the 
water — between the post and the dam, and tied fast. The Indian 
crept quietly away, and returned to the lodge. Nest morning, there 
was seen stretched upon the side of his wigwam, the skin of a large 
beaver. The trapper knew the nature of the animal, his ruling in- 
stinct was cnriosiittj. The white post was the object, the bait on which 
the Indian trapper relied to catch the beaver. The animal snes from 
the mouth of his hole the new object, the white post. At first he 
retreats ; he soon returns, grows familiar with the sight, but is not 
29 



450 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

satisfied ; liis curiosity pushes him onward ; he has seen, but he has 
not yet smelt the strange post. He presses forward until, when too 
late, he finds himself clasped by the jaws of the concealed trap, and 
dies a victim to his fatal curiosity. So it is with men. How many 
there are who, like the beaver, give range to their natural appetites and 
dispositions, and like him fall victims to their unrestrained curiosity. 

The night was dark, the rain falling in torrents, when the inmates 
of a small log cabin, in the woods of early Indiana, were aroused 
from their slumbers by a loud knocking at the only door of the cabin. 
The man of thejiouse, as he had been accustomed to do on like occa- 
sions, rose from his bed and hallooed, "Who's here ? " The outsiders 
answered, " Friends, out bird-catching. Can we stay till morning ? " 
The door was opened, and the strangers entered. A good log fire 
soon gave light and warmth to the room. Stranger to the host, 
'• What did you say when I knocked ? " "I said who's here." " I 
thought you said Iloosier." The bird-catchers left after breakfast, 
but next night returned, and hallooed at the door, " Hoosier," and 
from that time the Indiauiaus have been called Iloosiers — a name that 
will stick to them as long as Buckeys will to Ohioans, or SiicJiCrs to 
Illinoians. 

But- 1 have not disposed of the bird-catchers yet. They were three 
in number, an old man and his two little sons. They had a small 
pony, on which they placed their net. They were quail-catchers, 
well acquainted with the nature of their game. The day was dark 
and drizzling, just suited to their purposes. In the corner of the 
field, under covert of a thicket of briers, a flock of quails was seen by 
the keen eye of the old bird-catcher. Looking around, he saw 
another covert, that the leaders of the flock would naturally make for 
on quitting their present hiding-place. Here he staked down the 
small ends of the funnel of his net, extending the wings from the 
mouth so as to receive the flock and run the birds into the funnel. 
The net ready, the old man mounted the ppny, and commenced at a 
distance riding backward and forward horizontally by the covert, 
whistling and singing as he went, nearing them each time, gradually, 
but at no time going directly at them. The leaders became uneasy, 
quietly left their covert ; the rest of the flock followed, making 
directly for the other natural hiding-place, passed inside of the wings 
of the net, ran down, entered the funnel at full run for the brush 
beyond, the bird-catcher galloped up at full speed, drew up the stakes 
at the mouth of the funnel, and bagged the whole flock, without the 
loss of a bird. Had he rode directly at the flock, they would have 



SKETCHES OF Ts^ATURE. 451 

taken wing. How strikingly illustrative of the way that cunning vice 
lays its snares and captures unsuspecting virtue. 

I was sitting in the drawing-room at the Astor House, in New 
York, one evening, when there entered a small, lame man, with a 
microscopic glass in his hand, of high magnifying powers. He asked 
me if I did not want to look through it. I sat down by him. He 
placed a drop of rain-water on a plate. I saw distinctly that it was 
but a single drop ; it looked perfectly clear to the naked eye. I 
looked through the tube of the microscope. The drop was magnified 
into a lake of miles in circumference. The lake was clear as the 
drop, but to my astonishment it was filled with thousands of living 
animals, to my eye from the size of a buifalo down to a squirrel, with 
serpents, from the size of the anaconda down. At the upper end of 
the lake I saw a large animal, not unlike the rhinosceros. He turned 
from the shore, came foaming down the lake, seized a little animal, the 
size of a rabbity and swallowed it in an instant. I could see it in his 
stomach, alive and struggling. I took the glass from my eye, looked 
again at the drop of water, rose from my seat, and left the room. 
"Was this real, or was it merely the creation of the imagination ? 



452 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



LORD ASHBURTON. 

I HAVE already sketched a dinner party at Lord Ashburton's, at 
which I was an invited guest. Before I left that night, he asked me 
if I would have leisure some evening to visit him again, as he wished 
to have a familiar talk with me about the great West. I assured him 
that such a visit, on a subject that was so near to me, would give me 
pleasure, at any time he would indicate. The next week I received a 
note from him, fixing the evening for our interview. At the appointed 
time, I rang at the door, when it was opened by the gentlemanly ser- 
vant I have described in another sketch. My name was announced 
by the servant, and re-announced at the door of the drawing-room by 
another. As I stepped in, I was received by Lord Ashburton with a 
hearty welcome, and warm grasp of the hand, and a " how do you do, 
Mr. Senator Smith, from Indiana." I was conducted to a sofa, and 
after the usual introductory conversation about the occurrences of the 
day, as the clock struck ten, the servant entered with cups of Mocha 
coffee. The subject of the late treaty was first introduced by Lord 
Ashbui'ton. He remarked, " I hope the treaty may prove satisfactory 
to the two nations. I think it is based upon the just principles of 
reciprocity. I assure you, Mr. Smith, that nothing but the deep 
interest I feel for the peace, harmony, and prosperity of the two 
nations, could have induced me to accept this mission. The interests 
of England and x\merica are so closely identified, that the one can 
not be injuriously affected without producing a corresponding effect 
upon the other; and no common occurrence should ever interrupt 
their amicable relations, and I trust never will, if the right spirit pre- 
vails in the councils of the two nations." 

" I heartily concur with the views of your Lordship, I trust the 
time may never again come, when it shall be thought necessary or 
proper for these two great nations to resort to arms to settle any mat- 
ters of controversy between them. Diplomatic intercourse being 
always open, if the Cabinet at Washington, and the Ministers in Eng- 
land are so disposed, there certainly can be no question so difficult or 
obstinate, between the two nations, (hat it can not be settled upon just 
principles, without war, as well as after war, in this age of the 
civilized world. The principles of the s(<t(jis ante helhim govern all 
civilized nations." 

" I understand that there were some serious objections raised in the 
Senate, to the treaty recently ratified." "Yes, there were some that 
seemed for a time extremely formidable; but the treaty was finally 
ratified by a decided vote. The main objections were, that the line 



LORD ASHBURTON. 453 

was placed on the 49tli parallel of latitude instead of 54° 40', wliieli 
some of the Senators contended was our true northern boundary ; 
that the treaty provided for delivering up fufjitlvcs from justice, escap- 
ing across the line by Canada and the United States, but made no 
provision for the surrender, by Canada, of fug it i dps from labor ; that 
the treaty wholly omitted several matters of controversy between the 
two nations, among them the right of search, and impressment on 
the high seas." 

" The line is placed upon the true parallel, and will be extended 
upon that parallel to the Pacific Ocean, I have no doubt. The right 
to pursue and take fugitives from labor, or slaves, in Canada, on the 
part of the United States, will never be admitted in any treaty by the 
British Government. Our principles are, that slavery can never exist 
a moment in territory governed by our laws ; that the moment the 
slave steps upon our soil his shackles fall, and he is a free man. I 
admit there were many subjects that might have been included in the 
treaty that were not ; but the main purpose of my mission being 
accomplished upon a satisfactory basis, other matters were left for 
other negotiations." 

He then passed to the matters that I supposed had induced our 
interview, after partaking of a cup of coifee and some cakes, as the 
clock struck twelve. " Mr. Smith, you are from the great Valley of 
the Mississippi. I wish to learn from you the charatjter of the soil, 
productions, and minerals, of that great region of the world. I have 
read all about it in books, but that does not satisfy me." I entered 
into a full description of the West, as I had seen it — its timber, 
soils, productions, seasons, commerce, manufactures, minerals, cities, 
improvements, population, the manner of improving the woods, from 
the hut of the first settler to the mansion of the second or third gene- 
ration—in all of which he appeared to be deeply interested. " The 
United States is the great pork region of the world, and the Missis- 
sippi Valley produces the most of it. Can you give me the process 
of fattening your pork?" " We fatten our hogs, in the West, in large 
numbers, in our corn-fields; through the spring and summer they are 
kept on clover and rye fields, sown for the purpose, then turned into 
early ripened corn, and so on, from corn-field to corn-field, until the 
fattening process is completed ; they are kept well salted, and well 
watered." He could scarcely wait till I got through. " Don't your 
hogs waste a great deal of corn in the field?" The question had been 
put to me often, by my Eastern friends. " No, I think not. I have 
had some experience in that matter. I fed a large number of hogs. 



454 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



for many years, in my corn-fields. The first year I fed in lots with 
plank floors ; had my corn gathered and hauled to the pens ; the next 
year I turned my hogs into the field, to gather the corn for themselves, 
and the result of my ohservation was, that I saved at least the whole 
expense of gathering and feeding the corn. The size of the lot 
should be suitable to the number of hogs, so as not to leave them too 
long on the same ground." " Does this process enrich, or impoverish 
the ground they are fed upon ? " " It enriches it. A field of good 
land may be planted in corn every year, without manure, and if it is 
fed off in the field, by hogs, it will produce better and better, for 
twenty years. I have tried it that long, and such has been the result." 

'' Have you many poor people among you, for the want of employ- 
ment?" " None. There is employment for all who desire to work. 
Our poor are generally the victims of intemperance, rendering them 
unable to work." " Are your farmers generally tenants, or the owners 
of the soil ? " " They are very largely the owners of the soil, and 
farm on their own account." " Then you have the bases for a happy 
and prosperous people." 

He then gave me a full and graphic account of the condition of the 
laboring and farming classes of England, Ireland, and Scotland ; 
highly interesting to me, but too lengthy to find a place here, though 
I distinctly recollect much of it. 

" Will your Lordship favor me with your comparison of the Senate 
of the United States with the House of Lords, and the House of Rep- 
resentatives with the House of Commons?" "The British House of 
Lords does not contain so many distinguished men as the Senate of 
the United States. This is in part owing to the fiict, that in the Uni- 
ted States your Senators are selected from the most distinguished men 
of the several States, while our Lords are not elected, but hold their 
places for life, by inheritance and the special favor of the Crown. 
Our House of Commons is composed of a much larger number than 
your House of Representatives ; but I must say that the members of 
your House will compare very favorably with our Commoners. There 
is one remarkable characteristic that I have noticed in your Members 
as well as Senators — they are all speakers ; while our Houses have but 
the few, as compared to the many, who attempt to speak. How do 
you account for that." " I suppose it grows out of the previous train- 
ing of our members. They have all been raised and educated, as it 
were, on the hustings, or stump. Mostly taken from the bar, accas- 
tomed to speaking in public from their youth up, they come into Con- 



LORD ASHBURTON. 455 

gress ripe speakers. Besides, tlieir constituents naturally look to them 
for speeches ; the press publishes them ; they are stimulated to their 
highest efforts ; they speak with preparation ; they are men that have 
been generously dealt with by nature, and have come up to their 
positions by untiring personal exertions." 

His lordship spoke of the great extent of the British empire, as 
compared with that of France ; spoke feelingly of the poverty and 
dependence of the laboring classes of Europe, and highly of the 
abundant supplies of food in the United States. At two o'clock we 
took a parting cup of coffee, and I left, having spent one of the most 
agreeable nights of my life. 



456 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



RICHARD W. THOMPSON. 

Among the most distinguished meu of the State of Indiana, it 
affords me pleasure to name the subject of this sketch. I became per- 
sonally and intimately acquainted with Mr. Thompson, while he rep- 
resented his county in the Senate of our State. At an after period 
while representing his district in the Congress of the United States, 
our intimacy increased. Mr. Thompson possessed a mind of great 
vigor and clearness. Asa public speaker, he had few, if any superiors 
in the West. He was strong, clear, emphatic, sometimes vehement on 
the public stand, with a clear, loud voice, always enchaining his 
audience with his impassioned eloquence. At the bar, he was a fine 
lawyer, argued his cases well, upon full preparation. In Congress, 
Mr. Thompson stood high, among the first of his age. He frequently 
addressed the House of Representatives, always to the satisfaction of 
his party. He was an ardent Whig; a warm friend of Henry Clay. 
In person he was a model, some five feet ten inches high, straight and 
erect, black hair and eyes, high forehead, dark complexion, wide 
mouth, prominent nose and chin. I have thought the Indiana reader 
would like to see a specimen of his Congressional speeches, to notice 
his style. The extract following, is from his great tarifi" speech. 

" Mr. Chairman : — I think that the public interest would be much 
better obsei'ved, if our discussions here partook more of a hushiess, 
and less of a party character; for this measure is of such deep import- 
ance, that we shall find great difiiculty in adjusting its details. In 
all similar measures heretofore perfected, such has been found to be 
the case — the principle of protection being, in each of them, a perma- 
nent and settled principle. It was not until the tarifi" was permitted 
to mingle in the party contests of the day, that this principle was met 
with those denunciations which are now so common in this House ; 
the frequent repetition of which, has stimulated the industry of those 
in England and our own country, who promulgate the fiilse philosophy 
of free-trade. Such an association of a question so interesting and 
delicate — afi'ecting as it does, all the great interests of this vast coun- 
try of ours — is a subject of earnest regret, to all who look upon the 
labors and wisdom of the fathers of our Constitution, with that rever- 
ence to which they are entitled. 

" Instead of looking to the common interests of a common country 
and uniting heart and hand in their promotion, we are urged to depart 
from the admonitions of age and experience, and to adopt a theory 
which has sprung up in the cloister of the student, and been repudi- 



KICHARD W. THOMPSON. 457 

ated by the civilized world. And we are asked to adopt it, too, witli- 
out refereace to the action of those Governments with whom we have 
been accustomed to carry on our commerce, and suddenly to startle 
the world, by an example of magnanimity, which, while it will tend to 
characterize us as a nation of philanthropists, will inevitably make us 
a nation of bankrupts. I confess I am not very familiar with the 
mode of reasoning, by which gentlemen bring themselves to the sup- 
port of this policy ; but I am very sure that the friends of the tariff 
have nothing to fear from a fair presentation of it to the country. As 
one among the most humble of those friends, I am prepared to meet 
the issue and abide the result. But I do not see how any j^mctical 
results are to be arrived at, without looking both to foreign policy and 
our own history and condition. If we were left to the exchange of 
commodities among ourselves, or with those nations who had opened 
their ports to all the vessels of the world, and permitted importations 
of merchandize, without duty or restriction, we might easily conform 
our own to a policy so original and simple. But this is far from being 
our condition. Instead of the prevalence of such policy among com- 
mercial nations, there is not one that does not impose heavy burdens 
upon the commerce of the world. We have continually done so our- 
selves, having found it as essential to our own protection and prosperity, 
even at the earliest period of our history, as are the principles of our 
Constitution, to the perpetuity of our form of government. 

""If, at the period of our Revolution, and when its successful termi- 
nation had severed our allegiance to the mother country, the States 
of the confederacy had found their efforts to extend the ' freedom of 
the seas,' fairly and honestly reciprocated by foreign nations, it is not 
improbable that the confederacy may have continued, with a few addi- 
tional grants of power, merely sufficient to keep unimpaired the bond 
of union. But even then, when we were in our infancy, and when 
the question was an original one, we were met by no spirit of concilia- 
tion upon the part of other nations. We were driven to strengthen our 
national arm, that we might more successfully defend ourselves against 
foreign policy ; and now, when that arm is fast becoming stronger and 
stronger, we are asked to strike it down with a withering paralysis. 
Gentlemen may indulge in professions of deep reverence for the 
pripciples of free-trade, but practicaUy it can be considered in no 
other light than as involving the annihilation of all individual enter- 
prise in the country. It strikes a death-blow at that extended com- 
merce which has hitherto banished our national embarrassment, trans- 
ported to our doors all the essentials of ease and comfort, invigorated 
our domestic trade, and dispelled the thick gloom with which we have 



458 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

been encompassed. Sir, this is not a local question ; it is not a New 
England question. If it were, her Representatives upon this floor 
might appeal to this House, by a thousand considerations connected 
with the prosecution and success of our Revolutionary struggle. 

" They might claim, as the descendants of the ' Pilgrim Fathers,' 
that they be not left to the stifling influence of European policy. But 
it is a question of greater and broader magnitude ; it embraces all the 
interests in the land. The seaman, who pursues the mighty whale 
upon the ocean, or the adventurous boatsman, who plies his ' hroad 
horn ' upon the ' father of rivers,' are as much entitled to the protection 
of the Government as the man who hoards his millions in the security 
of his home. The farmer, the mechanic, the manufacturer, the fish- 
erman, every man of every class or pursuit in the country, feels his 
interests involved in the settlement of this question. The prosperit}' 
of all these is blended together. They constitute the great machinery 
of civil government and society ; each part of which must be protected 
within its sphere. Strip from the merchant his means of trade, and 
you paralyze the farmer, the mechanic and the manufacturer. Stop 
the plow of the farmer, and the shuttle of the manufacturer is no 
longer heard, the implements of the mechanic are laid aside, and the 
ledger of the merchant closed. Will gentlemen annihilate this mutual 
and harmonious dependence? If this is their purpose, they have but 
to establish their free-trade, and leave the governments of Europe to 
persist in their restrictions and prohibitions, and their wish is con- 
summated. 

" Our country, in times past, has been encompassed with many diffi- 
culties, which time and perseverance have dispelled. Wo are now in 
the full pride of national vigor and strength, and as we are looking 
out upon our elevation, the political theorist, who sees panic and 
doubt in every advance of public policy, asks us to turn aside from 
the path which civilized nations have trod so long, and adventure 
upon the experiment of free-ti-ade. Let him have his way, and 
instead of those systems of currency and finance which have so suc- 
cessfully ministered to our necessities, we shall be driven to a mere 
exchange of commodities, depending for the value and sale of our 
products upon the caprice of foreign policy. Instead of an accumu- 
lation of the means of trade, we shall be paving the way for an ulti- 
mate return to an exclusively metallic currency, which is so at war 
with national wealth and individual enterprise. Instead of opening 
as wide as the compass of the ocean, the pathways of our commerce, 
we should be obstructing every avenue to its success." 



DANIEL WEBSTEK. 459 

DANIEL WEBSTER. 

The name of the eminent subject of this sketch, has been so long 
identified with the history of his country, that it would seem almost 
unnecessary for me to notice him here. The son of a plain farmer in 
New Hampshire, he rose by the force of his native powers, to be one 
of the first lawyers of the United States, in comparatively a few years. 
He early commenced his career as a politician and statesman, and in 
a few years stood alone, as the great and powerful man without com- 
peer in New England, and take him all in all, with no superior in the 
United States, in all the high qualities of the civilian. Whether the 
position of Mr. Webster was at the bar, in the argument of important 
causes in the Supreme Court, in the House of Representatives, in the 
Senate of the United States, Secretary of State, he was always found 
equal to the occasion, standing self-sustained by his great native pow- 
ers, improved by long and deep study. His speeches have been pub- 
lished in many forms ; his orations are before the world, every school- 
boy has read them ; his diplomatic correspondence remains in the 
archives of the nation for the guidance of our statesmen. I have no 
space to sketch, much less to review them, although they are as 
familiar to me as household words. I had the pleasure of being asso- 
ciated with Mr. Webster from the year 1837 to 1841, in the Senate, 
I found him there when I took my seat. He left us to enter the Cab- 
inet of General Harrison in 1841, and his place was filled by Rufus 
Choate whom I have sketched elsewhere. 

I had every opportunity of seeing Mr. Webster, and of hearing 
him, in the open Senate and in executive session, for four years, during 
which time he was brought into direct contact daily with a body of the 
greatest men on earth. It is eulogy enough for me to say that he 
stood head and head with the greatest of these eminent men. The 
great characteristic of the mind of Mr. Webster, was comprehensive- 
ness, and clearness ; there seemed to be no subject so comprehensive, 
none so abstruse, perplexed, entangled, that his vigorous mind did not 
at once see it, in all its bearings and ultimate consequences, and in 
the most plain and intelligible manner present it to his hearers, hence 
his power before his audience. Mr. Webster was a true orator, as dis- 
tinguished from a declaimer. He was plain, strong, clear. He stood 
erect, gestures easy and natural, the orator was swallowed up in the sub- 
ject, the hearers lost sight of Mr. W^ebster, in the interest he imparted 
to the matter in debate ; and the wonder was, that others had not 
thought of the same ideas, they seemed to be so common and so 
obvious. He was always cool, collected, and self-balanced, and no 



460 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

excitement even in the heat of debate, could throw him off his guard, 
so far as to make him forget his self-respect, or the courtesy of debate 
due to others ; still with all his powers he was not cut out for a leader, 
a pioneer, like General Jackson, John C. Calhoun, and Henry Clay. 
His was rather the heavy artillery in the army of Napoleon, silencing 
the batteries of the enemy, as at Austerlitz and Jena. What Mr. 
Webster might have been had he lived further West, and had be and 
Henry Clay not been like two great lights, luring out together, stand- 
ing prominently before the same party, may easily be suggested. In 
person, Mr. Webster was some five feet ten inches in hight, strongly 
built, remarkably large expanded chest, head very large, forehead 
unusually high and large, hair and eyes coal black, features fine. In 
private society and at his own social parties, Mr. Webster was, like all 
great men I have ever met, plain and social, making all in his presence 
quite at home. His many speeches have been so widely circulated, 
that I content myself with giving to the reader an abstract from his 
reply to Mr. Calhoun, on the important subject of nullification^ that 
will be read with interest while our Union lasts. 

" The gentleman from South Carolina," said Mr. Webster, " has 
admonished us to be mindful of the opinions of those who shall come 
after us. We must take our chance, sir, as to the light in which pos- 
terity will regard us. I do not decline its judgment, nor withhold 
myself from its scrutiny. Feeling that I am performing my public 
duty with singleness of heart and to the best of my ability, I fearlessly 
trust myself to the country, now and hereafter, and leave both my 
motives and my character to its decision. 

" The gentleman has terminated his speech in a tone of threat and 
defiance toward this bill, even should it become a law of the land, 
altogether unusual in the halls of Congress. But I shall not sufiier 
myself to be excited into warmth, by his denunciation of the measure 
which I support. Among the feelings which at this moment fill my 
breast, not the least is that of regret at the position in which the gen- 
tleman has placed himself. Sir, he does himself no justice. The 
cause which he has espoused finds no basis in the Constitution, no 
succor from public sympathy, no cheering from a patriotic community. 
He has no foothold on which to stand, while he might display the 
powers of his acknowledged talents. Every thing beneath his feet 
is hollow and treacherous. He is like a strong man struggling in a 
morass ; every efi'ort to extricate himself only sinks him deeper and 
deeper. And I fear the resemblance may be carried still further ; I 
fear that no friend can safely come to his relief; that no one can 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 461 

approach near enough to hold out a helping hand, without danger of 
going down himself, also, into the bottomless depths of this Serbonian 
bog. 

"The honorable gentleman has declared that on the decision of the 
question now in debate, may depend the cause of liberty itself I am 
of the same opinion ; but then, sir, the liberty which I think is staked 
on the contest, is not political liberty, in any general and undefined 
character, but our own, well understood, and long enjoyed American 
liberty, 

" Sir, I love liberty no less ardently than the gentleman, in whatever 
form she may have appeared in the progress of human history. As 
exhibited in the master States of antiquity, as breaking out again from 
amid the darkness of the middle ages, and beaming on the formation 
of new communities, in modern Europe, she has, always and every 
where, charms for me. Yet, sir, it is our own liberty, guarded by con- 
stitutions and secured by union ; it is that liberty which is our pater- 
nal inheritance, it is our established, dear bought, peculiar American 
liberty to which I am chiefly devoted, and the cause of which I now 
mean, to the utmost of my power, to maiatain and defend. 

'•The Constitution does not provide for events which must be preced- 
ed by its own destruction. Secession, therefore, since it must bring 
these consequences with it, is revolutionary. And nullification 
is equally revolutionary. What is revolution ? Why sir, that is 
revolution which overturns, or controls, or successfully resists the 
existing public authority ; that which arrests the exercise of the 
supreme power ; that which introduces a new paramount authority into 
the rule of the State. Now sir, this is the precise object of nullifica- 
tion. It attempts to supersede the supreme legislative authority. It 
arrests the arm of the executive magistrate. It interrupts the exer- 
cise of the accustomed judicial power. Under the name of an ordi- 
nance, it declares null and void, within the State, all the revenue laws 
of the United States. Is not this revolutionai-y ? Sir, so soon as this 
ordinance shall be carried into effect, a revolution will have commenced 
in South Carolina. She will have thrown off the authority to which 
her citizens have heretofore been subject. She will have declared her 
own opinions and her own will to be above the laws, and above the 
power of those who are entrusted with their administration. If she 
makes good these declarations, she is revolutionized. As to her, it is as 
distiucfly a change of the supreme power, as the American revolution 
of 177G. That revolutioTi did not subvert Government in all its forms. 
It did not subvert local laws and municipal administrations. It only 
threw off the dominion of a power, claiming to be superior, and to 



462 EARLT INDIAT^A TRIALS. 

hare a riglit, in many important respects, to exercise legislative author- 
ity. Thinking this authority to have been usurped or abused, the 
American colonies, now the United States, bade it defiance, and freed 
themselves from it by means of a revolution. But that revolution left 
them with their own municipal laws still, and the forms of local Gov- 
ernment. If Carolina now shall effectually resist the laws of Congress, 
if she shall be her own judge, take her remedy into her own hands, 
obey the laws of the Union when she pleases, and disobey them when 
she pleases, she will relieve herself from a paramount power as dis- 
tinctly as the American colonies did the same thing in 1776. In 
other words, she will achieve, as to herself, a revolution. 

'• But, sir, while practical nullification in South Carolina would be, 
as to herself, actual and distinct revolution, its necessary tendency 
must also be to spread revolution, and to break up the Constitution, as 
to all the other States. It strikes a deadly blow at the vital principle 
of the whole Union. To allow State resistance to the laws of Con- 
gress to be rightful and proper, to admit nullification in some States, 
and yet not expect to see a dismemberment of the entire Government, 
appears to me the wildest illusion, and the most extravagant folly. 
The gentleman seems not conscious of the direction or the rapidity 
of his own course. The current of his opinions sweeps him along, 
he knows not whither. To begin with nullification, with the avowed 
intent, nevertheless, not to proceed to secession, dismemberment, and 
general revolution, is as if one were to take the plunge of Niagara, 
and cry out that he would stop half way down. In the one ease as in 
the other, the rash adventurer must go to the bottom of the dark 
abyss below, were it not that that abyss has no discovered bottom. 

" Nullification, if successful, arrests the power of the law, absolves 
citizens from their duty, subverts the foundation both of protection 
and obedience, dispenses with oaths and obligations of allegiance, and 
elevates another authority to supreme command. Is not this revolu- 
tion ? And it raises to supreme command four and twenty distinct 
powers, each professing to be under a General Government, and yet 
each setting its laws at defiance at pleasure. Is not this anarchy, as 
well as revolution? Sir, the Constitution of the United States was 
received as a whole, and for the whole country. If it can not 
stand altogether, it can not stand in parts ; and if the laws can not be 
executed every where, they can not long be executed any where. 
' Such is my opinion, and my opinion shall be my law, and I will 
support it by ray own strong hand. I denounce the law ; I declare it 
unconstitutional ; that is enough ; it shall not be executed. Men in 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 463 

arms are ready to resist its execution. An attempt to enforce it shall 
cover the land with blood. Elsewhere, it may be binding ; but here 
it is trampled under foot.' 

" This, sir, is practical nullification. 

"Andnow, sir, against all these theories and opinions, I maintain — 

" 1. That the Constitution of the United States is not a league, con- 
federacy, or compact, between the people of the several States in their 
sovereign capacities ; but a Government proper, founded on the adop- 
tion of the people, and creating direct relations between itself and 
individuals. 

" 2. That no State authority has power to dissolve these relations ; 
that nothing can dissolve them but revolution ; and that, consequently, 
there can be no such thing as secession without revolution. 

" 3. That there is a supreme law, consisting of the Constitution of 
the United States, acts of Congress passed in pursuance of it and 
treaties ; and that, in cases not capable of assuming the character of 
a suit in law or equity, Congress must judge of, and finally inter- 
pret, this supreme law, so often as it has occasion to pass acts of leg- 
islation ; and, in cases capable of assuming, and actually assuming, 
the character of a suit, the Supreme Court of the United States is the 
final interpreter. 

" 4. That an attempt by a State to abrogate, annul, or nullify an act 
of Congress, or to arrest its operation within her limits, on the ground 
that, in her opinion, such law is unconstitutional, is a direct usurpa- 
tion on the just powers of the General Government, and on the equal 
rights of other States, a plain violation of the Constitution, and a pro- 
ceeding essentially revolutionary in its character and tendency. 



464 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 



JOSEPH GALES. 

Among the great men of the nation, I have long placed Joseph 
Gales, the senior editor of the National Intelligencer. His name has 
stood at the head of that valuable paper, until the volumes of the tri- 
weekly numbered LVIII. on the sixth day of October, 1857. As an 
editor, Mr. Gales has few equals in the United States, and no superior. 
With his motto, standing at the head of his paper, " Liberty and 
Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," he has at all times 
in his able editorials, that have been extensively read in America and 
Europe, made his motto his polar star. He has been what his paper 
imports, the "National Intelligencer." Mr. Gales as a writer and 
political controversialist, stands as a model. No attacks upon him, 
hovvever unwarranted, ever drove him from his dignity as an editor, 
nor induced him, even in moments of excitement, to write a single, 
low or unbecoming paragraph. When attacked by Mr. Ritchey, the 
editor of the Union, who was a very small man, holding a remarkably 
severe pen, Mr. Gales commenced his reply ; " Our venerable neigh- 
bor, may his shadow never grow less," and in plain, dignified language 
proceeded to present his side of the question to tbe public. Mr. Clay 
once asked me, what man in the United States knew the most of our 
country, and its prominent men. I said John Quiney Adams. He 
said he agreed with me, but who next? and before I had time to speak, 
he said Joseph Gales. I fully concurred with him. Mr. Gales, it is 
true, was a strong National Whig, and so was I. It is not impossible, 
that I like the course of his paper the better on that account, still it 
was not my purpose in noticing him, to speak of his politics, but 
rather to pay a tribute to his devotion to the Union, and the uniform 
dignity of his editorials. Mr. Gales is about the common bight, well 
made, broad face, remarkably large head, prominent, square forehead, 
heavy coat of hair, standing erect, like the quills upon the porcupine. 
The last time I saw him, his hair was white as snow, his face wrinkled 
with age, his eyes covered with glasses, his limbs crippled ; and yet I 
found him in his little room over the office of the Intelligencer, pen 
in hand, preparing an editorial article. I give to the reader, one of 
his last, on a very important subject, to show his style, as well as his 
Views. 

PREVENTION OF CRIME. 

" The alarming increase of social di.sordcr and insubordination 
throughout the whole country, as manifested sr>'netimes in banded 
rowdyism, and sometimes in individual outbreaks of violence, may 
well excile the solicitude, and fix the attention of all irood citizens. 



JOSEPH GALES. 465 

The evil has, indeed, reached such a hight, that it not only mars the 
harmonious working of our civil and political system ; but threatens 
with danger the very elements of all social organization — the sacred- 
ness of human life and the security of private property. 

" If we may judge from the records of the cotemporary press, it 
has come to pass in all our larger cities, that the chapter of willful 
crime, has become more varied and replete, than the chapter of those 
daily accidents, against which human precaution is unable to secure 
the denizens of the crowded street and thoroughfare. The private 
passenger is in danger of death from the miscreant that lurks in some 
darkened alley, while a dozen persons assembled at a club-room or 
marching in procession, are liable, perhaps for reasons which measura- 
bly inculpate themselves, to be assailed by a shower of deadly missiles 
or a discharge of shot from the still more deadly revolver. 

" The moral causes of this cheap contempt in which human life is 
held among us, lie upon the surface, and are seen in the extravagant 
notions of personal rights and personal independence which are fost- 
ered, not only by the perversion of our political doctrines, but by the 
laxity of parental discipline, which, renouncing the duties of parent- 
age, plants thorns not only for the pillow of its own declining age, 
but scatters ' firebrands and death ' throughout the whole community. 
What wonder that our rabble youth, left unrestrained and subjected 
to the influences of depraved companionship, and of ' street educa- 
tion,' should soon become chiefly remarkable for their precocity in 
crime ? 

" And out of this extravagant theory of personal independence 
thus perverted by early contact with vice and violence, has grown an 
equally extravagant notion respecting the right of self-defense, which 
turns every man into an avenger, not only of the wrongs actually 
committed against his personal peace and safety, but renders him swift 
to shed blood in the very apprehension of danger or insult. As partly 
the cause and partly the eff"ect of this indifi"erence to human life, the 
practice of going armed with concealed and deadly weapons, has well 
nigh become one of our social habitudes. The only conceivable object 
of course, in thus carrying these instruments of death, is to kill : the 
violent, that they may perpetrate their misdeeds with impunity ; the 
peaceful, under the plea that the habit, though originally reprehensible, 
has become a dire necessity under the reign of license and disorder. 
Well may we deplore the social state in which such an apology for 
such a practice has only too much foundation. 

" But, whatever the motive and whatever the excuse for this danger- 
ous custom, it is one that should not be tolerated in any community 
30 



466 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

which has emerged from the condition of savages, and professes 
allegiance to law and order. All experience has proved, that Ameri- 
cans are too irascible and quick in the resentment of personal affronts, 
to be trusted with the means of executing such summary process for 
the redress of wrongs, or for personal defense against threatened and 
apprehended danger. 

" The subject in hand is one upon which we have long reflected, 
and recent events in our own city have only tended to revive its press- 
ing importance, and prove its immediate concern to the peace and 
welfare of this metropolitan community. The question recurs, -^-hat 
shall be done to stay this tide of violence and crime, which threatens 
to sweep away every dike of social restraint and civil subordination ? 
Is it the fault of the law, or of the administration of the law that mob 
violence and covert ruffianism are permitted to stain our streets with 
blood, and that unoffending persons are liable to be struck down in 
their tracks by the random shot of some street-brawler, or lurking 
desperado ? We are aware that such deplorable ' incidents ' are not 
of frequent occurrence among us ; but late events would seem to 
indicate that the sanctions of penal justice, for some reason, have 
failed to prove a terror to evil-doers among us. thus tending only the 
more to embolden the disturbers of the public peace by the prospect 
of impunity in their career of crime and disorder. 

" We therefore suggest to the peace-loving and orderly citizens the 
propriety of passing more stringent laws to repress the outbreaks of 
rowdyism and violence in our midst ; and among such additional 
measures for the prevention of crime, we would especially designate 
an enactment, so framed as to insure its ready enforcement, against 
the dangerous and criminal practice of wearing concealed weapons. 
Such a law, we are aware, will prove unavailing, unless those who 
administer it are endowed with the means and facilities, as well as the 
will to enforce its penalties ; but we are well persuaded that, strin- 
gently enforced, it would prcwn? a vast amount of crime, and tend to 
save the effusion of blood among us. Desperate ills demand ener- 
getic remedies, and no social ill ever cried for correction so loudly and 
urgently, as the reckless ruffianism which now stalks through our 
streets and alleys from nightfall to morning. Congress has .enacted a 
stringent law against dueling ; but is it worse for two men to go out 
and settle a quarrel by open combat than for nocturnal rowdies to be 
allowed the means of committing wanton murder on unoffending pass- 
ers along the highway ? No peaceable citizen thinks of carrying arms, 
save for defense ; and why should not the lawless ruffian be disarmed 
and deprived of the power of executing the promptings of his depraved 



JOSEPH GALES. 467 

passions ? The very possession of fire-arms incites to their bloody 
use ; when the pistol is in hand it obeys the murderous impulse before 
reason or reflection can interpose. 

" It is possible that a law under this head, so framed as to admit of 
practical enforcement, might be termed by the disorderly, and perhaps 
by the demagogical, who are ever ready to pander to popular passion, 
an ' invasion of American rights,' or an ' unwarrantable restriction 
of personal liberty.' It is a great truth in political science, that, in 
the main, every people has nearly just such a government as it 
deserves — all civil government being little other than the combined 
reflex of the intellectual and moral character of its subjects. As well 
expect the stream to rise above its source, as that a people, willing to 
endure the reign of license, will be left to enjoy the blessings of pub- 
lic peace and tranquillity. And let it not be forgotten, that they who 
neglect or refuse to strengthen the hand of the civil power for the 
repression of violence and wrong, become themselves, in a government 
of public opinion like ours, the sharers in the guilt and crime which 
disgrace our annals. They are sowing the wind, and society must 
perforce be left to reap the whirlwind." 



468 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



DANIEL BOONE. 

The subject of this sketch, one of the great pioneers of the Valley 
of the Mississippi, is so intimately connected with the days of massa- 
cre and blood in the great West, that I feel justified in placing before 
the reader, his own account of the trials, and thrilling scenes through 
which he passed, while periling his life in a savage country. Many 
of my subjects have been the early settlers of Indiana. I trust it will not 
be unacceptable, even to my Indiana readers, to let Daniel Boone, who 
saw the woods of our State, when they were the exclusive haunts of 
wild beasts, and the roving red man, speak for himself. I accident- 
ally noticed the following in the Family Magazine published in Cin- 
cinnati in 1836, and give it as I found it. 

" It was on the first of May, 1769, that I resigned my domestic happi- 
ness, and left my family and peaceable habitation on the Yadkin river 
in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in 
quest of the country of Kentucky, in company with John Finley, 
John Stuart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool. 

" On the seventh of June, after traveling a western direction, we 
found ourselves on Red river, where John Finley had formerly been 
trading with the Indians, and from the top of an eminence, saw with 
pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. For some time we had expe- 
rienced the most uncomfortable weather. We now encamped, made a 
shelter to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt, 
and reconnoitre the country. We found abundance of wild beasts in 
this vast forest. The buffaloes were more numerous than cattle on 
their settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or crossing the 
herbage on these extensive plains. We saw hundreds in a drove, and 
the numbers about the salt springs were amazing. In this forest, the 
habitation of beasts of every American kind, we hunted with great suc- 
cess until December. 

" On the twenty-second of December, John Stuart and I had a pleas- 
ing ramble ; but fortune changed the day at the close of it. We passed 
through a great forest, in which stood myriads of trees, some gay with 
blossoms, others rich with fruits. Nature was here a series of wonders 
and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry 
in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, 
and charmingly flavored ; and we were favored with numberless ani- 
mals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. In the decline 
of the day near Kentucky river, as we ascended the brow of a small 
hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a canebrake and made us 
prisoners. The Indians plundered us, and kept us in confinement 



DANIEL BOONE. 469 

seven days. During that time, we discovered no uneasiness or desire 
to escape, which made them less suspicious ; but in the dead of night, 
as we lay by a large fire in a thick canebrake, when sleep had locked 
up their senses, my situation not disposing me to rest, I gently awoke 
my companion. We seized this favorable opportunity and departed, 
directing our course toward the old camp, but found it plundered and 
our company destroyed or dispersed. 

" About this time, as my brother with another adventurer who came 
to explore the country shortly after us, was wandering through the 
forest, they accidentally found our camp. Notwithstanding our unfor- 
tunate circumstances, and our dangerous situation, surrounded with 
hostile savages, our meeting fortunately in the wilderness gave us the 
most sensible satisfaction. 

" Soon after this my companion in captivity John Stuart, was killed 
by the savages, and the man who came with my brother, while on a 
private excursion, was soon after attacked and killed by the wolves. 
We were now in a dangerous and helpless situation, exposed daily to 
perils and death, among savages and wild beasts, not a white man in 
the country but ourselves. 

"Although many hundred miles from our families, in the howling 
wilderness, we did not continue in a state of indolence, but hunted 
every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend us from the winter. 
On the first day of May, 1770, my brother returned home, for a new 
recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving me alone, without bread, 
salt, or sugar, or even a horse or a dog. I passed a few days uncom- 
fortably. The idea of a beloved wife and family, and their anxiety on 
my account, would have disposed me to melancholy if I had further 
indulged the thought. 

" One day I undertook a tour through the country, when the diver- 
sity and beauties of nature I met with in this charming season, 
expelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of the day, the 
gentle gales ceased ; a profound calm ensued ; not a breath shook 
the tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, 
and looking around with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains 
and beauteous tracts below. On one hand, I surveyed the famous 
Ohio rolling in silent dignity, and marking the western boundary of 
Kentucky with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance, I beheld 
the mountains lift their venerable brows and penetrate the clouds. 
All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, 
and feasted on the loin of a buck which I killed a few hours before. 
The shades of night soon overspread the hemisphere, and the enrth 
seemed to be gasping after the hovering moisture. At a distance I 



no EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

frequently lieard tlie hideous yells of savages. My excursion had 
fatigued my body and amused my mind. I laid me down to sleep, 
and awoke not until the sun had chased away the night. I continued 
this tour, and in a few days explored a considerable part of the coun- 
try, each day equally pleasing as the first. After which I returned to 
my old camp, which had not been disturbed in my absence. I did 
not confine my lodging to it, but often reposed in thick canebrakes to 
avoid the savages, who, I believe, frequently visited my camp, but for- 
tunately for me, in my absence. No populous city, with all its vari- 
eties of commerce and stately structures, could afford such pleasure 
to my mind, as the beauties of nature I found in this country. 

" Until the twenty-seventh day of July, I spent my time in an 
uninterrupted scene of sylvan pleasures, when my brother, to my great 
felicity, met me, according to appointment, at our old camp. Soon 
after we left the place, and proceeded to Cumberland river, recon- 
noitering that part of the country, and giving names to the different 
rivers. 

" In March, 1771, I returned home to my family, being determined 
to bring them as soon as possible, at the risk of my life and fortune, 
to reside in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise. 

" On my return, I found my family in happy circumstances. I 
sold my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not carry with 
us, and on the twenty-fifth of September, 1773, we took leave of our 
friends and proceeded on our journey to Kentucky, in company with 
five more fomilies, and forty men that joined us in Powell's Valley, 
which is one hundred and fifty miles from the new-settled parts of 
Kentucky. But this promising beginning was soon overcast with a 
cloud of adversity. 

" On the tenth of October the rear of our company was attacked 
by a party of Indians, who killed six, and wounded one man. Of 
these my oldest son was one that fell in the action. Though we 
repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered our cattle and 
brought us into extreme difficulty. We returned forty miles to the 
settlement on Clench river. We had passed over two mountains, 
Powell's and Walden's, and were approaching Cumberland mountains, 
when this adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the 
wilderness, in passing from the old settlement in Virginia to Ken- 
tucky ; are ranged in a southwest and northeast direction ; are of 
great length and breadth, and not far distant from each other. Over 
them nature has formed passes less difficult than might be expected 
from the view of such huge piles. The aspect of these cliffs is so 
wild and horrid, that it is impossible to behold them without horror. 



DANIEL BOONE. 471 

" Until tlie sixth of June, 1774, I remained with my family on the 
Clench, when myself and another person were solicited by Grovernor 
Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of surveyors to the falls 
of the Ohio. This was a tour of eight hundred miles, and took sixty- 
two days. 

'■ On my return, Gov, Dunmore gave me the command of three 
garrisons during the campaign against the Shawnees. In March, 
1765, at the solicitation of a number of gentlemen of North Carolina, 
I attended their treaty at Wataga with the Cherokee Indians, to pur- 
chase the lands on the south side of Kentucky river. After this, I 
undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements 
through the wilderness to Kentucky. 

" Having collected a number of enterprising men well armed, I 
soon began this work. We proceeded until we came within fifteen 
miles of where Boonsborough now stands, where the Indians attacked 
us, and killed two and wounded two more of our party. This was on 
the twenty-second of March, 1775. Two days after we were again 
attacked by them, when we had two more killed and three wounded. 
After this we proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition. 

" On the first of April, we began to erect the fort of Boonsborough, 
at a salt lick, sixty yards from the river on the south side. On the 
fourth, the Indians killed one of our men. On the fourteenth of 
June, having completed the fort, I returned to my family on the 
Clench, and whom I soon after removed to the fort. My wife and 
daughter were supposed to be the first white women that ever stood 
on the banks of the Kentucky river. 

" On the twenty -fourth of December, the Indians killed one of our 
men and wounded another; and on the fifteenth of July, 1776, they 
took my daughter prisoner. I immediately jjursued them with eight 
men, and on the sixteenth, overtook and engaged them. I killed two 
of them and recovered my daughter. 

" The Indians, having divided themselves into several parties, 
attacked in one day all our infant settlements and forts, doing a great 
deal of damage. The husbandmen were ambushed and unexpectedly 
attacked while toiling in the field. They continued this kind of war- 
fi\re until the fifteenth of April, 1777, when nearly one hundred of 
them attacked the village of Boonsborough, and killed a number of 
its inhabitants. On the sixteenth. Col. Logan's fort was attacked by 
two hundred Indians. There were only thirteen men in the fort, of 
whom the enemy killed two and wounded one. 

'• On the twentieth of August, Colonel Bowman arrived with one 



472 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

hundred men from Virginia, with which additional force we had almost 
daily skirmishes with the Indians, who began now to learn the superi- 
ority of the ' long knife,' as they termed the Virginians; being out- 
generaled in almost every action. Our affairs began now to wear a 
better aspect, the Indians no longer daring to face us in open field, 
but sought private opportunities to destroy us. 

"On the seventh of February, 1778, while on a hunting excursion 
alone, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians and two French- 
men, marching to attack Boonsborough. They pursued and took me 
prisoner, and conveyed me to Old Chillicothe, the principal Indian 
town on little Miami, where we arrived on the eighteenth of February, 
after an uncomfortable journey. On the tenth of March I was con- 
ducted to Detroit, and while there, was treated with great humanity by 
Governor Hamilton, the British commander, at that port, and intend- 
ant for Indian affairs. 

" The Indians had such an affection for me, that they refused one 
hundred pounds sterling, offered them by the governor, if they woiild 
consent to leave me with him, that he might be enabled to liberate me 
on my parole. Several English gentlemen then at Detroit, sensible 
of my adverse fortune and touched with sympathy, generously offerred 
to supply my wants, which I declined with many thanks, adding- that 
I never expected it would be in my power to recompense such unmer- 
ited generosity. 

" On the tenth of April, the Indians returned with me to Old Chil- 
licothe, where we arrived on the twenty-fifth. This was a long and 
fatiguing march, although through an exceeding fertile country, 
remarkable for springs and streams of water. At Chillicothe I spent 
my time as comfortable as I could expect ; was adopted, according to 
their custom, into a family where I became a son, and had a great 
share in the affection of my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. 
I was exceedingly fiimiliar and friendly with them, alwaj^s appearing 
as cheerful and contented as possible, and they put great confidence in 
me. I often went a hunting with them, and frequently gained their 
applause for my activity at our shooting-matches. I was careful not 
to exceed many of them in shooting, for no people are more envious 
than they are in this sport. I could observe in their countenances 
and gestures the greatest expressions of joy when they exceeded me, 
and when the reverse happened, of envy. The Shawnees king took 
great notice of me and treated me with profound respect and entire 
friendship, often intrusting me to hunt at my liberty. I frequently 
returned with the spoils of the woods, and as often presented some of 



DANIEL BOONE. 473 

what I had taken to him, expressive of duty to my sovereign. My 
food and lodging were in common with them, not so good indeed as I 
could desire, but necessity made every thing acceptable. 

" I now began to meditate an escape, and carefully avoided giving 
suspicion. I continued at Chillicothe until the first day of June, 
when I was taken to the salt springs on Scioto, and there employed 
ten days in the manufacturing of salt. During this time, I hunted 
with my Indian masters, and found the land for a great extent about 
this river to exceed the soil of Kentucky. 

" On my return to Chillicothe, one hundred and fifty of the choicest 
Indian warriors were ready to march against Boonsborough. They 
were painted and armed in a frightful manner. This alarmed me, and 
I determined to escape. 

" On the twenty-sixth of June, before sunrise, I went off secretly, 
and reached Boonsborough on the thirtieth, a journey of one hundred 
and sixty miles, during which. I had only one meal. I found our fort- 
ress in a bad state, but we immediately repaired our flanks, gates, 
posterns, and formed double bastions, which we completed in ten days. 
One of my fellow prisoners escaped after me, and brought advice, that 
on account of my flight, the Indians had put ofi" their expedition for 
three weeks. 

" About the first of August, I set out with nineteen men, to surprise 
Point Creek town on Scioto, within forty miles of which we fell in 
with forty Indians going against Boonsborough. We attacked them, 
and they soon gave way without any loss on our part. 

" The enemy had one killed and two wounded. "We took three 
horses and all their baggage. The Indians having evacuated their 
town, and gone altogether against Boonsborough, we returned, passed 
them on the sixth, and on the seventh, arrived safe at Boonsborough. 

" On the ninth, the Indian army, consisting of four hundred and 
forty-four men, iinder the command of Captain Duquesne, and eleven 
other Frenchmen, and their own chiefs, arrived and summoned the fort 
to surrender. I requested two days' consideration, which was granted. 
During this we brought in through the posterns all the horses and 
other cattle we could collect. 

" On the ninth, in the evening, I informed their commander, that 
we were determined to defend the fort while a man was living. They 
then proposed a treaty — they would withdraw. The treaty was held 
within sixty yards of the fort, as we suspected the savages. The arti- 
cles were agreed too and signed ; when the Indians told us, it was 
their custom for two Indians to shake hands with every white man in 
the treaty, as evidence of friendship. We agreed to this also. They 



474 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

immediately grai^pled us to take us prisoners, but we cleared ourselves 
of them, thougli surrounded by hundreds, and gained the fort safe, 
except one man, who was wounded by a heavy fire from the enemy. 

" The savages now began to undermine the fort, beginning at the 
watermark of Kentucky river, which is sixty yards from the fort ; this 
we discovered by the water being made muddy by the clay. We 
countermined them by cutting a trench across their subterraneous 
passage. The enemy discovering this by the clay we threw out of the 
fort, desisted. On the twentieth of August, they raised the siege, 
during which we had two killed and four wounded. We lost a numr 
ber of cattle. The loss of the enemy was thirty-seven killed, and a 
much larger number wounded. We picked up one hundred and 
twenty-five pounds of their bullets, besides what stuck in the logs of 
the fort. 

" In July, 1779, during my absence, Colonel Bowman, with one hun 
dred and sixty men, went against the Shawnees of old Chillicothe. 
He arrived undiscovered. A battle ensued, which lasted until ten in 
the morning, when Colonel Bowman retreated thirty miles. The 
Indians collected all their strength, and pursued him, when another 
engagement ensued for two hours, not to Colonel Bowman's advan- 
tage. Colonel Harrod proposed to mount a number of horses, and 
break the enemy's line, who at this time fought with remarkable fury. 
This desperate measure had a happy efiect, and the savages fled on all 
sides. In these two engagements we had nine men killed and one 
wounded. Enemy's loss uncertain. Only /two scalps were taken. 

" June twenty-thii-d, 1780, five hundred Indians and Canadians 
under Colonel Bird, attacked Riddle and Martain"s station, and the 
forks of Licking river, with six pieces of artillery. They took all the 
inhabitants captives, and killed one man and two women, loading the 
others with the heavy baggage, and such as failed in the journey were 
tomahawked. 

" The hostile disposition of the savages caused General Clark, the 
commandant at the falls of the Ohio, to march with his regiment and 
the armed force of the country against Pickaway, the principal town 
of the Shawnees, on a branch of the Great Miami, which he attacked 
with great success, took seventy scalps, and reduced the town to 
ashes, with the loss of seventeen men. 

" About this time, I returned to Kentucky with my family ; for 
during my captivity, my wife thinking me killed by the Indians, had 
transported my family and goods on horses, through the wilderness, 
amid many dangers, to her flither's house in North Carolina. 

" On the sixth of October, 1780, soon after my settling again at 



DANIEL BOONE. 475 

Boonsborough, I went with my brother to the Blue Licks, and on our 
return he was shot by a party of Indians, who followed me by the 
scent of a dog, which I shot and escaped. The severity of the winter 
caused great distress in Kentucky, the enemy during the summer 
having destroyed most of the corn. The inhabitants lived chiefly on 
buflPalo's flesh. 

" In the spring of 1782, the Indians harassed us. ■ In May they 
ravished, killed and scalped a woman and her two daughters near 
Ashton's station, and took a negro prisoner. Captain Ashton pur- 
sued them with twenty-five men, and in an engagement which lasted 
two hours, his party were obliged to retreat, having eight killed, and 
four mortally wounded. Their brave commander fell in the action. 

" August eighteenth, two boys were carried ofi" from Major Hoy's 
station. Captain Holder pursued the enemy with seventeen men, 
who were also defeated, with the loss of seven killed and two wounded. 
Our afi"airs became more and more alarming. The savages infested 
the country and destroyed the whites as opportunity presented. In 
a field near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and running to scalp 
him, was himself shot from the fort, and fell dead upon the ground. 
All the Indian nations were now united against us. 

" August fifteenth, five hundred Indians and Canadians came against 
Briant's Station, five miles from Lexington. They assaulted the fort, 
and killed all the cattle round it ; but being repulsed, they retired 
the third day, having about eighty killed ; their wounded uncertain. 
The garrison had four killed, and nine wounded. 

'•August eighteenth. Cols. Todd and Trigg, Maj. Harland and my- 
self, speedily collected one hundred and seventy-six men, well armed, 
and pursued the savages. They had marched beyond the Blue Licks, 
to a remarkable bend of the main fork of Licking river, about forty- 
three miles from Lexington, where we overtook them, on the nine- 
teenth. The savages observing us, gave way, and we, ignorant of 
their numbers passed the river. When they saw our proceedings, 
having greatly the advantage in situation, they formed their line of 
battle from one end of the Licking to the other, about a mile from the 
Blue Licks. The engagement was close and warm for about fifteen 
minutes, when we, being overpowered by numbers, were obliged to 
retreat with the loss of sixty- seven men, seven of whom were taken 
prisoners. The brave and much lamented Colonels, Todd and Trigg, 
Maj. Harland, and my second son, were among the dead. We were 
afterward informed, that the Indians, on numbering their dead, find- 
ing that they had four more killed than we, four of our people they 



476 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

had taken were given up to their young warriors, to be put to death 
after their barbarous manner. 

" On our retreat, we were met by Col. Logan, who was hastening to 
join us with a number of well-armed men. This powerful assistance 
we wanted on the day of battle ; the enemy said, one more fire from 
us would have made them give way. 

" I can not reflect upon this dreadful scene without great sorrow. A 
zeal for the defense of their country led these heroes to the scene of 
action, though with a few men, to attack a powerful army of experi- 
enced warriors. When we gave way they pursued us with the utmost 
eagerness, and in every quarter spread destruction. The river was 
difficult to cross, and many were killed in the flight — some just 
entering the river, some in the water, others after crossing in ascend- 
ing the cliff's. Some escaped on horseback, a few on foot ; and being 
dispersed every where, in a few hours brought the news of this melan- 
choly battle to Lexington. Many widows were now made. The 
reader may guess what sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, 
exceeding any thing that I am able to describe. Being reinforced, we 
returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed every where, 
cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This mournful scene exhib- 
ited a horror almost unparalleled — some torn and eaten by wild 
beasts ; those in the river eaten by fishes ; all in such a putrid con- 
dition that no one could be distinguished from another. 

" When Gen. Clark, at the falls of Ohio, heard of our disaster, he 
ordered an expedition to pursue the savages. We overtook them 
within two miles of their town, and we should have obtained a great 
victory, had not some of them met us when about two hundred poles 
from their camp. The savages fled in the utmost disorder, and evac- 
uated all their towns. We bui-ned to ashes Old Chillicothe, Pickaway, 
New Chillicothe, and Willstown ; entirely destroyed their corn, and 
other fruits, and spread desolation through their country. We took 
seven prisoners, and fifteen scalps, and lost only four men, two of 
whom were accidentally killed by ourselves. This campaign damped 
the enemy, yet they made secret incursions. 

" In October, a party attacked Crab Orchard, and one of them, being 
a good way before the others, boldly entered a house, in which were 
only a woman and her children, and a negro man. The savage used 
no violence, but attempted to carry off" the negro, who happily proved 
too strong for hiin, and threw him on the ground, and in the struggle 
the woman cut off" his head with an ax, while her little daughter shut 
the door. The savages instantly came up and applied their tomahawks to 



DANIEL BOONE. 477 

the door, when the mother putting an old rusty gunbarrel through the 
crevice, the savages immediately went oiF. 

" From that time till the happy return of peace between the 
United States and Great Britain, the Indians did us no mischief. 
Soon after this the Indians desired peace. 

" Two darling sons and a brother I have lost by savage hands, 
which have also taken from me forty valuable horses, and abundance 
of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights have I spent separated 
from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer's sun, and 
pinched by the winter's cold, an instrument ordained to settle the 
wilderness. 

"Daniel Boone." 

" Fayette counti/, Kentuch/.^' 



478 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 



GEN. JOHN TIPTON. 

The subject of tliis sketch lias been noticed as the Ensign hero of 
Capt. Spencer's company, at the battle of Tippecanoe. He was about 
the medium hight, well set, short face, round head, low wrinkled fore- 
head, sunken grey eyes, stern countenance, good chest, stiff sandy 
hair, standing erect from his forehead. I found him chairman of the 
Committee on Indian Affairs, when I joined him in the Senate, a 
position he was eminently qualified for, having been for many years 
Indian agent, and well acquainted with most of the Western tribes. 
The General was a man of great energy of character ; was one of the 
original projectors of the Wabash and Erie Canal, the longest canal in 
the world. We lived in different parts of the State. I was only 
slightly acquainted with him when we met in the Senate. He was 
frank, confiding, and open as a colleague. We differed politically, but 
our social intercourse was never marred a moment on that account; 
we concurred fully on all leading measures we thought calculated to 
benefit the State, among them was the purchase of the great Miami 
Ileservation on the upper Waba.sh. The treaty ceding this reserva- 
tion to the United States came lyp for ratification in executive session ; 
we apprehended no difficulty in the matter, but, to our surprise, Sena- 
tor Niles, of Connecticut, raised the objection, that the lands, by the 
terms of the treaty, would cost the United States two dollars and fifty 
cents an acre ; that they would be taken possession of by squatters 
and pre-empted the moment the treaty was ratified, at one dollar and 
twenty-five cents, and the United States would lose fifty per cent, 
upon the price paid for the lands. Gen. Tipton met the position with 
all his power, and I said something on the subject ; we tried to place 
the question upon more enlarged views of the duty of the United 
States to extinguish the Indian title ; that the State of Indiana was 
not to be prejudiced by the delay of the General Government to 
extinguish the title to the Miami lands, until they had become so 
valuable. After we had said all that occurred to us, the vote on the 
ratification was taken, when all the Senators, except the two Indiana 
Senators, and the two Illinois Senators, answered " j\^o." Instead of 
two-thirds of the Senate, we had just /o?/r, all in favor of the ratifica- 
tion. The Senate adjourned, the General was deeply mortified. We 
met in the evening at his room. I suggested that we would propose 
an amendment, fixing the minimum of these lands at two dollars and 
fifty cents per acre, and exempting them from the 02>eration of the 
pre-emption laws in force; after some time the General consented 
that I should draw up the amendment ready to be ofl^red a day or 



ALBERT S. WHITE — JOHN PETTIT. 479 

two afterward in executive session. I requested Senator Niles to 
move a reconsideration of the vote, which he did ; the motion carried 
without a count, the amendment was offered, and adopted iinanimous- 
ly ; the vote taken on the ratification of the treaty, as amended, and 
carried without a single negative voice. Gen. Tipton was a most 
faithful Senator, always in his seat, ready to vote. He was not what 
is called an eloquent debater, still he was plain and strong as a 
speaker. He saw the question clearly, and marched directly at it 
without any rhetorical flourishes. He was a strong, if not an elo- 
quent debater, and was always formidable upon the subject he had in 
charge, and he seldom, or never interfered with the business of others, 
beyond a silent vote. The General left the Senate four years before 
my term expired. We parted warm friends ; with the last grasp of 
my hand, as he bid me farewell, his voice chokod, and the tears ran 
down his manly cheeks. I never saw him afterward. His remains 
repose in the cemetery at Logansport, on the banks of the Wabash. 
Peace to the brave dead. 



ALBERT S. WHITE, 

Was the successor of General Tipton. We served together during 
the balance of my term. Mr. White was a small, spare man, of deli- 
cate constitution, a native of New York, thin visage, prominent fea- 
tures, large nose, narrow breast. He was a ripe and good scholar, a 
fine speaker, always prompt and vigilant. He served but a single 
term. I understand that he is now enjoying himself at his prairie 
home in White county, far removed from city and political life, where 
I leave him for the present, and say a word about another distin- 
guished ex-senator. 



JOHN PETTIT. 

Judge Pettit was a large, fleshy man, below the common hight, 
heavy breast, broad chest and shoulders, large head, inclined to bald- 
ness, capacious brain, strong full voice. He was a good lawyer, at 
one time District Attorney of the United States. Judge Pettit was 
but a short time United States Senator, but was quite prominent while 
there. He possessed talents of a high order. "The manner of Judge 
Pettit, as a speaker, was not at first very prepossessing, but he gained 
upon his audience as he progressed, and before he closed he was heard 
with close attention. Since the expiration of his Senatorial term, he 
has acceptably discharged the duties of circuit judge, and is now on 
the bench, in fine health. 



480 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

HENRY L. ELLSWORTH. 

Let my right hand forget her cunning, before I forget my long- 
cherished friend, Henry L. Ellsworth, of Lafayette. Mr, Ellsworth 
is one of nature's noblemen. He is a son of Chief Justice Oli- 
ver Ellsworth, a brother of Grovernor William Ellsworth, of Con- 
necticut, and father of Henry W. Ellsworth, our late Charge d ' 
Affaires, at Stockholm. Mr. Ellsworth was for many years Commis- 
sioner of the Patent Office, at Washington City, and without dispar- 
agement to others, it may be truly said that there never has been a 
more efficient head to that important department; ever at his post, 
with a mind especially adapted to that position, inquiring and intelli- 
gent, courteous and gentlemanly in his intercourse with all persons 
visiting the office on business, or for curiosity. He was respected and 
beloved by all. These remarks can only be appreciated by those who 
have visited the Patent Office at Washington City, and seen the crowd 
of visitors who daily flock to that most interesting department, stand- 
ing as it does, in my opinion, a thousand degrees above any private 
museum in the world, and worthy to be seen for days, by every citi- 
zen of the United States. When I am at Washington City, I devote 
my little spare time in the great deposit of the curiosities of nature 
and art. There Mr. Ellsworth was as completely at home as he now 
is, on his extensive prairie farms, looking over the waving corn, of a 
thousand acres in a single field. He will long be remembered by the 
farmers of the United States, as the person who gave the first impetus 
to the agricultural bureau, in the Patent Office, which has already 
done so much in the distribution of the seeds of every clime, among 
the people of the United States. I have known Mr. Ellsworth long and 
intimately, and I can say truthfully, that there are few men that I have 
ever known, who have squared their lives like him. by the golden rule. 
Long may he live to enjoy on earth his well-earned reputation. 

GENERAL SAMUEL MILROY. 

Among the first men of early Indiana, was the subject of this 
sketch. He was a native of Pennsylvania, settled on the Wabash, in 
the county of Carroll, among the first ; soon became one of the prom- 
inent men in that part of the State. He held many important offices, 
was many years a State Senator. He was a man of great, good com- 
mon sense, always a safe and prominent legislator, of much influence 
in the body. General Milroy was not an orator, but he spoke plainly, 
clearly, well, always confining himself to the question under discus- 
sion. Indiana has lost few more prominent men than General Sam- 
uel Milroy. How rapidly are our great men passing away. 



SAMUEL W. PAEKER. 481 



SAMUEL W. PARKER. 
Indiana has produced few such men as the subject of this sketch. 
Samuel W. Parker was a student and graduate with John B. Weller, 
of California, at the Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He was a ripe 
scholar. Mr. Parker studied law, and was licensed to practice at Con- 
nersville, where I first saw him. He was a slim, flaxen-headed strip- 
ling, light eyes and brows, large white forehead, good features, head 
erect, the step quick and firm. He rose rapidly at the bar, until he 
stood among the first of his age. He was clear, strong, able, before 
the jury; his voice was of great volume, when he brought it up to its 
full pitch. He always threw himself bodily into the cause of his 
client, making it his own. On the stump, as a public speaker, he 
stood high with his party ; few men, of his age, have made so many 
public political speeches, of so much power. He was an ardent 
Union Whig, After ably serving his county in the State Senate, he 
was twice triumphantly elected a llepresentative in Congress from 
his district. While in Congress, the health of Mr. Parker was very 
delicate, still he took part in many of the important debates, in which 
he placed himself among the best of the speakers of the House. Mr. 
Parker is in good health livina; in his fine Whitewater mansion, 
adjoining Connersville, where I resided, before I left the Whitewater 
Valley, to make my home at the capital. The extracts from one of 
his Congress speeches, will give the reader some idea of Mr. Parker's 
style, and will be otherwise interesting : 

" Nearly a quarter of a century ago, I was traveling over that 
mighty wilderness without a wood that stretches away from my own 
State, through Illinois, toward the setting sun. From early morning 
until near the closing in of the evening, I was out upon that great 
plain, without the sight of tree, or bush, or shrub, to indicate a spot 
where the pioneer's camp-fire might be kindled for rest and refresh- 
ment, and where he might again take his latitude and departure for 
the long-sought site of his intended home. You may well siippose 
that it was a tedious day, and, as it wore to its close, full of anxiety. 

" And now, sir, after listening to the counsels and following the 
lead of others so long, in passing over the Grand Prairie — if you will 
allow the figure — of this debate, and having at length obtained the 
floor, I feel like I were approaching ' the timber ' — about to emerge 
from the wildering waste, where, by noting the course of the streams, 
the range of the hills and the moss upon the trees, as the pioneer 
31 



482 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

does, I may determine my present position, and ' blaze ' the way I 
would travel. 

" I stand here committed to the support of the adjustment meas- 
ures, and because I so stood before my constituents, it was, above all 
other things, that they sent me here. And, sir, before them, I estab- 
lished for myself that test as the ' qualification ' for my candidate for 
the Presidency, let him be presented to me by a National Convention, 
or in any other mode. But, sir, I do not go to a National Convention 
to learn what my politics, my principles, my obligations to my coun- 
try are. I claim the privilege, as an American citizen, as a Whig, to 
adjust those matters for myself. I am very sure I shall allow no such 
irresponsible body to do it for me. I tolerate that body in doing one 
thing for me, and only one, because I can not do it myself. When 
there are two or more 'pretender?, for the Presidency among those 
whom I deem my political friends, I allow them to do whatever such 
a body may do — to clear the field of all who would be general oflicers, 
but one, and to place the banner of our hosts in his hands. I am a 
Whig. Am I now understood ? 

" Now, Mr. Chairman, my friend from Georgia either confounds the 
Fugitive Slave law with the Constitution, or else he misrepresents — 
without design, I know — the position of the great mass — the millions 
of the North. Sir, you know the sentiments upon this floor. We 
have all manner of spirits here. But I think I might call up the 
members of this House now, and not one single gentleman, North or 
South, would answer and say that he stood upon this question as the 
gentleman from Georgia has laid it down. Where is the man at the 
North who denies the Constitutional right of the South to reclaim 
their fugitive slaves? That was the proposition, and it was argued as 
such. Sir, I know the Northern people. My destiny was cast with 
them. It is with them now. I never spent three days where slavery 
existed by law, until I came to this capital last winter — never. I know 
those people too well to believe, for one moment, that doctrines of 
that kind are entertained among them. Sir, there are not to be found 
in this broad land hearts truer to the Constitution, in all its spirit, 
compromises and requisitions, than are to be found throughout this 
whole North to which the gentleman refers. That will never be dis- 
puted — no, never, where that people are known. Our Southern 
brethren may dismiss their fears, and we beg them to do so. They 
greatly misapprehend the North. 

" Mr. Chairman, we may as Whigs forego the great cardinal 
articles of our faith. We may permit the veto, the one-man power, 



SAMUEL W. PARKER. 483 

to demolish and override, with imperial prowess, the Representatives 
of the people in Congress. We may endure the oppression of the 
toiling millions of our own countrymen, by holding them down in 
the homeless, penniless, breadless poverty and thraldrom of the for- 
lorn subjects of European princes, throwing no kind arm of protec- 
tion around their industry, and see our country bled and exhausted 
into hopeless bankruptcy and ruin, as it would be, were it not for the 
yet unexhausted resources of its virgin soil, its opulent mines, and 
the irrepressible energies of our people. We may tolei'ate the shame- 
ful inconveniences, the fatal disasters, springing from a criminal neg- 
lect to improve our national harbors, lakes, and rivers, where hecatombs 
of our people, with their wealth, are annually engulphed — calamities 
more to be dreaded than ocean pirates, highwaymen or bandit hordes ; 
but the union of our States, the brotherhood of sections, the harmony 
of our people, are essential to our national existence. We may not 
forego this. Peace and harmony within are essential to all associa- 
tions of men. AYid even 

' Devils with devils damned firm concord hold.' 

" So you will mark that, sir ; no man shall have my vote for the 
Presidency unless he stands firm on the ground of the Compromise. 

" Twenty-three years ago, when I went to the State of Indiana, 
before this calamitous excitement had sprung up between the free and 
the slave States, there was a deep interest there as elsewhere, which 
pervaded the whole community, in regard to the lamentable condition 
of the free black man ; and the people seemed on the point of repeal- 
ing some of the ' black laws,' enlarging their liberties, and giving 
them many powers and privileges which they had not. But this 
unfortunate question arose — and what has been the consequence ? 
Sir, Mr. Clay never made a truer remark than he did to the people 
of my district ten years ago — when he told the congregated thousands 
that met and greeted him there, that this slavery agitation had put 
back the cause of emancipation fifty years ! " 

The House being in the Committee on the Whole on the state of 
the Union — Mr. Parker said : 

" I would address myself gladly, on this occasion, if I could, to all 
my fellow-citizens of the South, to all of the North. I am of neither 
the North or the South ; but still I am from a free State — one bap- 
tized as such, and sanctified, I hope, by the glorious Ordinance of 
1787, in which I think I have cause for exultation — I am sure I have 
still greater cause in the fact that I come here from the Great North- 
west. 

" Mr. Chairman, I have sometimes contemplated that marble group, 



484 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

at once beautiful and sublime, wbicb rests upon one of tbe projections 
of the eastern portico of this Capitol, and thought I saw a patriotic 
embodiment there, which probably did not occur to the fervid fancy 
of the artist. That stalwart pioneer, with gigantic proportions, a 
brave heart, strong hands, and the bearing of a hero, is no inapt rep- 
resentation of that section of this confederacy whence I come. See 
how he holds in his mighty gi'asp, harmless as an unweaned child, 
those two savage arms, one pointing South, and the other Worth, each 
armed with the implements of death. The fond mother as she bends 
over her sleeping child, fears no evil ; and so securely are they pro- 
tected, that the watch-dog looks kindly on ! 

" Sir, should the time ever come — which may God in his mercy 
forbid ! — that the fell demon of discord shall call out his legions from 
the South to conflict with those of the North, that good genius of the 
Mighty West will be there and see that the Union receive no detri- 
ment. The spirit that dwells in that virgin land is not of the South 
alone, nor of the North alone, but of both — of all — it is, and will 
ever be of the Union ! There, sir, it occurs to me, are cradled up pre- 
eminently the hopes of the Union, There if any where on this con- 
tinent, is the anchor-ground for the good shiji, in which the fathers 
freighted all of government that is dear to us — when the tempests of 
faction shall have mingled the ocean and the sky. That region is 
already the happy home of the one-fourth of all our millions ; it will 
be the still more happy home, I trust, of unnumbered millions yet to 
spring up there, and pour in there from the earth's ends. Sir, such 
another home for Freedom the blessed si\n of Heaven never shone 
upon. 

" ' Oh, 'tis a noble heritage, that goodly land of ours ! 

It boasts, indeed, nor Gothic fane, nor ivy-mantled towers. 

But then its interlinking lakes; its forests wild and wide; 

And streams, the sinews of its strength, that feed it as they glide; 

Its rich primeval pasture grounds, fenced by the stooping sky ; 

And mines of treasure yet undelved that 'neath its surface lie; 

Magnificent materials! How hath the hand of man 

Been following out the vast design of the eternal plan! 

Oh, surely, a high destiny which we alone can mar. 

Is figured in the horoscope where shines that risen star ! ' 

" Let the country look there, and be in strong hope in the hour of 
its deepest peril. 

" I would invite the attention of all who hear me, of all my coun- 
trymen, if I could, to the obvious conservatism that must be garnered 
there, arising from the nativities of the inhabitants, as shown by the 
late census tables. ' Men out of every nation under heaven ' are there, 



SAMUEL W. PARKER. 485 

as if gathered to the workl's Pentecost. Let me give you a few items 
as to my own State, and, ah uno disce omnes. 

"I say nothing now of the 54,426 natives of foreign lands, who 
are not with us by the accident of birth, but because they loved our 
homes and institutions so well they could sunder the thousand tender 
ties of kindred and friends and fatherland, to come and dwell among 
us, and who say unto us from the depths of honest and happy hearts, 
' thy people shall be my people.' But look to the American born. 
Of these, there were, in 1850, 541,079 native Indianians, out of an 
aggregate population of 988,416 souls. Of the residue, there were 
10,646 from New England ; 24,310 from New York, 7,837 from New 
Jersey; 44,245 from Pennsylvania ; 10,177 from Maryland; 41,819 
from Virginia; 33,175 from North Carolina; 4y069 from South Caro- 
lina ; 12,734 from Tennessee ; 68,651 from Kentucky. The aggre- 
gate from all the free States among us was 213,727. The aggregate 
from all the slave States was 176,575. 

'' Sir, does not this exhibition furnish an inhabitant of that region 
for near forty years a catholic voucher to speak on this occasion as a 
Union man? If these multiplied thousands from the free States and 
from the slave States of this Union, be now of Indiana — the thous- 
ands very nearly balanced too — who, I pray you, may plead for the 
Union noia, and here, if one from that heart of the Great West may 
not ? Controlling affections bind these thousands from the older 
States to Indiana now. But where are their other innumerable and 
strong affections entwined? "Where are ' the okl folks at home,' of 
the many, very many, sons and daughters from those other States, 
whose hearts are warmly throbbing there ? Where the brothers and 
sisters, the early friends of those sons and daughters? Where the 
enchanting scenes of their childhood, which fond memory never for- 
gets ? Where the graves of their ancestors, and the dear relatives 
and early friends, ' loved and lost?' Sir, those affections run out like 
adamantine radii, to every spot where Americans have found a home, 
over all this blessed Union, binding all its parts together with the 
strongest cords of earthly love. And you will only dissolve that 
Union — make foreign States of those now joined together, when you 
hear our heart-strings break ! 

" Now, sir, where does the path of wisdom lead us ? It is said that 
the act of 1820 is no compromise, is no compact; that it has no more 
binding effect than any other law. The last generation did not say 
so — we never did, prior to the year 1854. But grant it; we all must 
acknowledge that it was an act of peace, and being such, svhatever 
else it may or may not be, shall we destroy it ? I would not give 



486 EARLY INDIANA. TRIALS. 

myself to that work for the wealth of the continent. Why, sir, all 
our law-books tell us that twenty years of quiet and uninterrupted 
occupancy, under claim of title, will settle the title in the occupant. 
This has been the soil of Freedom, nearly double that number of 
years, and Slavery, who alone could question the title, put the occu- 
pant in possession. He marked the boundary himself; said he yielded 
it forever. And there in your statute-book is the evidence of the act, 
the bond binding it all. Sir, a forcible ejectment of Freedom now, 
to let Slavery enter, seems to me the most stupendous outrage that 
could ever occur where laws are made, and where Christians live. We 
do not treat our own savages thus. 

" Mr. Chairman, it seems to me eminently just and proper to submit 
this question to the people before we act upon it here. They are the 
fountain of all our power — for them we act. So momentous a matter 
as this should have their consideration before it has our determina- 
tion. In this aspect of the case, it is without a parallel in the history 
of our legislation, if we assume to dispose of it now. But sir, the peo- 
ple lolll look to it; we can not ' crush it out ' of their cognizance. 
Our action will but serve to inflame them ; and woe betide him in the 
free States on whom their fires fasten. Those fires will convert all to 
cinder where they go, as they do in those 'primeval pasture-grounds' 
of ours, when they catch and ride upon the wing of the wind. Do 
gentlemen say it is right in principle, and therefore, we will pass the 
bill regardless of consequences ? I say it is wrong in principle, and 
as such it should be resisted. But admit the principle to be right, it 
may be established in a wrong manner, a wrong time and place. We 
all love money. It is right to acquire it in an honest way ; but, it is 
wrong to take a bribe — the wages of sin — to murder and rob for gain. 
My purpose is not to employ strong language offensively to any one; 
but to make my point the more readily palpable. 

" Now sir, let me refer the committee to a memorable speech of Mr. 
Clay. It was made very unexpectedly by him near twelve years ago, 
in my district, and in the presence and hearing of some acres of my 
constituents. He was passing from the State of Ohio to the capital of 
my own State, in fulfillment of a long-promised visit. At the city of 
Richmond, in my district, where the masses for many years had almost 
idolized him, he was intercepted by an immense multitude. He stop- 
ped and addressed them at length, in those thrilling and patriotic 
strains that he alone could use. As he was about retiring from the 
stand, a gentleman, with a taste I shall not characterize, as the organ 
of the Abolitionists, presented to him a petition, numerously signed, 
fraying the man to manumit his slaves. At the time, I had a seat by 



SAMUEL W. PARKER. 487 

his side, saw and heard all that passed, and will carry the scene vividly 
before me as long as I live. His friends, Governors Crittenden and 
Metcalf, of Kentucky, also sat near him. Mr. Clay threw out the 
lengthened roll, handed it to a friend to be read aloud to the multitude, 
and as the reading progressed he was obviously most profoundly moved. 
His friends seemed anxious and desirous to speak to him ; but with 
flushed face, flashing eye, and his whole form dilated, he turned aside 
his friends, and in one of his own mighty moods, arose again, self- 
poised, self-sufiicient, and for near half an hour poured forth a volume 
of such rich and patriotic eloquence as was never surpassed, even by 
him, before. Go read it, gentlemen of the North and of the South, 
in the volume of his speeches ; bind it to your heart of hearts, and love 
your whole country as you may, you will love it better then. Would 
to God the old patriot were living and here, to speak for me and all 
of us this day ! But, ' though dead, he yet speaketh.' Hear him 
briefly on this occasion : 

'"I desire no concealment of my opinion in regard to the institu- 
tion of slavery. I look upon it as a great evil, and deeply lament 
that we have derived it from the parental Government, and from our 
ancestors. But here they are : and the question is, how can they be 
best dealt with ? If a state of nature existed, and we were about TO LAY 
THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIETY no manwould he more strongly opposed than 
I should he to incorporate the institution of slavery among the elements.' 

" Sir that is precisely the work on which we are now engaged. 
Where ' a state of nature ' now exists; on a virgin soil, where a slave 
never trod, though savages have roamed there from the ' primal morn,' 
we are ' about to lay the foundation of society ' for the millions of 
civilized and Christian people that will soon congregate there for a 
home forever for themselves and their children. What ought we to do ? 

" Turning from the slavery feature of this controversy, let me implore 
you, gentlemen of the committee, to lay no rude hand on the compro- 
mise of 1820. Its illustrious authorship invokes our reverence ; time 
has sanctified it. The tranquillity it has shed upon the whole country 
should embalm it in our affections. I have shown how firmly rooted, 
and yet how antagonistic, are the slavery sentiments of the North and 
of the South. They can not be eradicated now. They may be never. 
If we be wise then, we will turn our backs upon this great trouble. 
Yes sir, as the sons of Noah covered their drunken father — we will 
seize the mantle of all the compromises, and walking backward, throw 
it over this enormous shame of our ' land of the free.' 

" Where is this thing leading us? What is to be the result? The 
gentlemen from Georgia and North Carolina (Messrs Stephens and 



488 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Clingman), tells us to pass this bill, and hencefortL. all slavery agitation 
' will speedily subside ! ' Gentlemen, do not deceive yourselves ; reject 
this bill ; spurn it from among us ; tread it under your foot as you would 

'the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Erought death into the world and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden.' 

" And then, if you continue to stand by the Compromise of 1850, 
as you told us you would, we may have peace. We had it to an almost 
unexampled degree, ' when this serpent entered our bowers.' We must 
not shut our eyes to the future. The storm that has been howling 
through these Halls, and over the country, for the last few months, is 
but the first gentle whisperings of the tempest that will soon be upon 
us, if we pass this bill. 

" But, Mr. Chairman, should we be unmindful of our interests and 
tranquillity at home, our mission of peace and good will toward all the 
world, should our wickedness and madness here stir up the great deep 
of the Union, and cover us all over in a night of storms, I do not be- 
lieve the good vessel our fathers built, so often tried and always strong, 
will go to pieces. No sir, the celestial omens that cheered the day when 
honest hearts, clear heads, and strong hands launched her forth on the 
world's wide sea, and have made gloriously luminous all her voyage 
thus far, will not leave us now. When the blasts of sectional strife 
shall bellow loudest, when the waves of fiery fixction shall be leaping 
up like hell-dogs all around to devour us ; then, sir, a voice will be 
heard above the storm from our own Great West, calling out to the 
friends of the Union every where : ' Be of good cheer, it is I, be not 
afraid ! ' and there will be a great calm, though wrecks may be seen all 
around dripping with blood. 

" No sir, the Union will survive, it will never be dissolved. The free 
States, rich in all the elements of happiness and power, will surely never 
attempt it. The slave States can never combine for a purpose so sui- 
cidal. One or more States, North as well as South may withdraw, but 
many more than the fathers began with, will cling to each other with 
hooks of steel, and triumphantly ride out a world of storms. Should 
an individual State ever desire to withdraw from the Union, we will say 
to her, as ' Abraham said unto Lot, let there be no strife I pray thee, 
between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen ; for 
we be brethren ; separate thyself, I pray thee from me.' Should less 
than a State attempt revolution, we will know how to dispose of them. 
Yes sir, we icill liavg the rehelliuiis traitors. 

'• Mr. Chairman, for more than a quarter of a century I have had 



SAMUEL W. PARKEE. 489 

my eyes on this movement, this struggle between freedom and slavery, 
with an anxiety that has never slumbered. This last evolution, and 
the reception it has met with, the time and the temper of the public 
mind, satisfy me now that we have arrived at the point of a decisive 
crisis. Yes sir, of that I am as confident as I can be of any event 
shrouded in the future. Repeal the Missouri Compromise by this bill, 
which opens the way for slavery just as freely into Oregon, AVashing- 
ton, Minnesota, Utah and New Mexico, as into Kansas and Nebraska, 
and one of two extremes will surely follow : 

" The free States will not submit. You will make a gulf between 
them and the slave States, deep and wide as that which sepai'ates the 
rich man from Lazarus ; you dash into the free States a reagent that 
will precipitate and crystallize all their anti-slavery elements into one 
solid, compact and indissoluble mass ; you build up an omnipotent 
party there, that will heed no voice but the will of the majority under 
the Constitution. They will grind to powder every compromise outside 
of that instrument ; that sweet voice of conciliation will charm no 
more ; they will abolish the inner State and coastwise slave-trade, slav- 
ery in the District of Columbia ; they will throw a wall for freedom, 
high as heaven and deep as hell, around the States where slavery now 
exists, never admitting another into the Union, and around all the 
Territories, excluding it forever therefrom. The absolute will and 
power of the majority here will be henceforth the rule of action. 
Such, sir, I sincerely believe will be the result. It will be but ' an even 
pace ' with the spirit of all the civilized world, except it may be, where 
slavery yet has a home on this continent. 

" Or, on the other side, the free States will fret a while, will slump 
and acquiesce. That, the slave States certainly expect. I must con- 
fess I have heard before of the gradual debauchery of the mind and 
conscience. 'Nathan said unto David, thou art the man.' Human 
nature is always the same. The principh will have been settled that 
the slave owner can not enjoy his just and /ree, and equal rights as an 
American citizen, unless he can carry and keep his slave-property 
with him in all the common territory of the Union. That yielded 
as his unquestionable right, the abstract right is much stronger, that 
he should be allowed to go in like manner, into all the States ' where 
men most do congregate,' go upon our own soil wherever the national 
ensign, the stars and stripes are unfolded. Form alone will then be 
in the way. That will dissolve like flax before the flame ; and ten 
years will not transpire before slavery will be tolerated in every State 
in the Union. If the free States are ready for this, I am not ; nor do 
I believe they are." 



490 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



JOHN M'PHERSON BERRIAN. 

The subject of this sketch was among the most accomplished and 
talented Senators from the entire South. He was Attorney General in 
the Cabinet of General Jackson, and for many years Senator from 
Georgia. He was one of the prominent Southern conservatives that 
separated from the Jackson party upon the bank and currency ques- 
tion. I had the pleasure of an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Ber- 
riau for sis years, and I can cheerfully say, as he is no longer with 
us, that a more accomplished gentleman I never met. His mind was 
of a high order, well trained by long study for the discussion of legal 
as well as questions in the Senate. Like the other great men of the 
body, he always came to the question thoroughly prepared, and conse- 
quently was very formidable. His manner was easy ; gestures fine ; 
voice musical, little of the Southern fire of declamation ; the words 
flowed from him in measured sentences, with proper emphasis, to give 
the intended force to his language. He was one of the most exem- 
plary men in word, act, and deed I ever knew, strictly temperate and 
ever at his post. As a debater he was more like Silas Wright, of New 
York, than any other Senator. Mr. Berrian was in person about five 
feet ten, spare built, large head, with a high capacious forehead, dark 
hair and eyes, wide mouth, fine features. He was a warm, personal, 
and political friend of Henry Clay. He made many able speeches in 
the Senate, extracts from several of which I would like to present to 
the reader, but must content myself with a few from his great speech 
on the limitation of the veto power of the President. Mr. Berrian, 
with many other Senators, including the author of these sketches, was 
opposed to the required two - thirds Yote, to overrule the veto, and in 
favor of the majority vote being suflBcieut, placing the question sub- 
stantially on the ground of the Constitution of Indiana. 

" Mr. President : Before I proceed to assign the reasons which will 
induce me to vote in favor of this resolution, I desire to exclude from 
the discussion certain considerations which do not appear to me legiti- 
mately to belong to it. And first, sir, the reference which has been 
so repeatedly made by gentlemen who have preceded me, to the trihu- 
nitian power of Kome, seems to me to be entirely inappropriate, and 
not calculated to aid us in the correct solution of the present inquiry. 
Between the veto power of the President of the United States and 
that which was exercised by the Roman tribunes, there is an entire 
want of analogy. In its origin ; in its diiraiiou ; in its singleness; in 
the existence of an antagonist interest^ against which it was intended 



JOHN m'pherson berrian. 491 

to afford protection; and in the j)lurality of persons, to whom it was 
confided — in all these particulars it is not only variant from, but in 
absolute contrast with, the power which is conferred on the President 
of the United States. A brief reference to them will serve to explain 
my view of this want of analogy. 

" 1. The tribunitian power of Rome originated in a popular tumult, 
and was extorted hj plebeian discontent, from the fears of an aristo- 
cratic Senate. It had its origin in violence, and was the result of a 
struggle between two distinct and opposite interests, which were per- 
manently antagonistic to each other. The veto power of the American 
President was peaceahly conferred by the framers of the Constitution, 
themselves representing one great, one undivided interest, that of the 
whole American people. 

" 2. The Roman tribune was elected anmialli/. If he exercised his 
powers unwisely and injuriously to the interests of those who con- 
ferred it, a corrective was found in his annual accountability. The 
abuse of the power was not necessarily of long duration. The Pres- 
ident of the United States is elected for the term of four years. The 
abuse of the veto power, nay even its improvident exercise by him, 
in the commencement of his career, may subject seventeen millions of 
people to years of suffering. 

" 3 The tribunitian power of Rome stood alone and unconnected 
with any other. He who wielded it, was set apart for that important 
service. The Roman tribune held no other office, the interest con- 
nected with which might tempt him to abuse his power. Under our 
Constitution, it is an an accumulation of power, in the highest officer 
of the Government. The President of the United States, who wields 
the sword, and practically holds the purse ; who is charged with the 
execution of all the laws, and who dispenses all the patronage of the 
Government ; and who is, moreover. Constitutionally re-eligible to the 
same high office, is made the sole depository of this additional power. 

" 4. The Roman tribune was the chosen representative of the pJeheians 
of Rome. His office was instituted, and his power was conferred for 
their protection against the antagonist interest of a permanently 
distinct order of citizens, the Patricians of Rome, in whom the whole 
legislative power was vested. Here we have no distinct classes, no 
privileged orders ; we have, on the contrary, an entire equality of 
political rights — and among these, the right to participate personally 
in the exercise of legislative power belongs to all classes of our citi- 
zens. Legislation is not here the act of a hereditary Senate, whose 
members constitute a distinct, permanent, and privileged order. Its 
powers are exercised by the representatives of the same common con- 



492 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

stituents, by whom the President is chosen. They are, themselves, a 
portion of the people, chosen by and from among them, alike subject 
with all others, tc the laws which are enacted ; and when the brief 
hour of their official existence has passed away, they return to, and 
become part of, the constituency which they have been deputed tem- 
porarily to represent. 

" 5. But again. The power of the veto, as it was established in Re- 
publican Rome, was not entrusted to a single will. The Roman 
tribunes were originally two, afterward five, and subsequently ten in 
number, and he who enunciated the veto must first obtain the con- 
currence of his colleagues. Here the veto power is emphatically 
an unit. Among seventeen millions of people, one man is its sole 
depository ; he speaks, and the legislative voice is silenced. I do not 
dilate these reflections. It is sufficient to state them, to show the 
entire diversity, nay, the absolute contrast which exists between the 
question which we are assembled to consider, and that which was pre- 
sented to the Roman statesman. 1 mistake, sir. The diversity is not 
entire — the contrast is not absolute. There are, as I will endeavor to 
demonstrate before I sit down, two points of minute resemblance. 
The tribunitian power of Rome was, in its origin, a simple negative ; 
but in process of time, it drew to itself the initiative power, that of 
preparing laws, as well as forbidding them. This is the first point of 
resemblance between the Tribunitian and the Presidential power. It 
is sufficiently exact— and the other is not less so. This guardian and 
champion of plebeian right — this pure and perfect emanation of popu- 
lar will — the actual afflatus of the genuine democracy of ancient 
Rome, by the concurring testimony of historians, produced a series of 
evils greater in number, infinitely exceeding in their magnitude, those 
which it was established to prevent. 

" Mr. President, we shall gain as little instruction, on the subject 
of our inquiry, by an examination of the veto power, as it is found 
in the existing governments of Europe. In the structure of those 
governments, in the condition of their people, there is a total want of 
analogy to the government and the people of the United States. 
Take the case of England, for example. The King is there a branch 
of the legislature. His duties are not merely executive, but he is 
also a component part of the legislative power. Parliament can not 
assemble without him, and may be prorogued or dissolved at his 
pleasure. In the language of English commentators, on the Consti- 
tution of that kingdom, speaking with reference to that Parliament, 
the King is cajmt, principium^ et finis of that great corporation, and 
body politic. But, again ; the people of England are divided into 



JOHN m'pherson berrian. 493 

separate classes, orders, and estates, which are permanently distinct, 
each class having its own peculiar interests, which may habitually 
conflict with those of every other, or of some other class. These are 
represented as classes, in the Parliament of Great Britain, which con- 
sists of the King, the Lords, temporal and spiritual, and the Com- 
mons. If the interests of a hereditary aristocracy, or of an estab- 
lished Church, should lead to an invasion of the rights of the great 
body of the people, the House of Commons interposes the shield of 
its defense. If the rights of the aristocracy, or of the Church, are 
assailed by the representatives of the people, these noble Lords come 
to the rescue. And beyond and above all these, in solitary and sullen 
omnipotence, is another portion of the legislative power, vested in the 
monarch, whose single will restrains the action of all the other estates 
in the kingdom. 

" I speak of the theory of the British Constitution, not of the 
practical operation of the government. Here, in the United States, 
all legislative power is vested in Congress. The President does not 
participate in it. His duties are strictly and exclusivfely executive. 
I speak here again of Constitutional theory, and not of practical 
result. We have no distinct orders, no antagonist, political interests, 
specially represented in the National Legislature, which is composed 
of the common Rcprc&cntatives of a common constituency. Finally, sir, 
this utter want of analogy is rendered most obvious by a comparison 
of the power of the British Parliament with that of the American 
Congress. That of the former has been expressed by figured speech, 
which some have considered too bold, the omnijwtence of Parliament; 
but the objectors concede all that is material to the present discussion, 
when they admit it to be true, ' that what the Parliament doth, no 
authority on earth can undo.' It has power to make, to expound, and 
to repeal laws, without other limit than that which is imposed by 
natural impossibility. It wields that absolute despotic power which, 
it is said, must reside somewhere in all governments. It is not limited 
to ordinary legislation, acting under, and in subjection to, the Consti- 
tution ; but it may deal with the Constitution itself, according to its 
absolute and uncontrollable will and pleasure. It can regulate, and 
new-model the succession to the crown, as it did in the reign of Henry 
VIII., and of William III. It can alter the established religion ; it 
did so in several instances, in the reign of the former monarch, and 
in those of his immediate successors. It can change the Constitution 
of the kingdom, and of Parliament itself, as was done by the act of 
Union, and the successive establishment of triennial and septennial 
Parliaments. Such is the British Parliament. It is not an ordinary 



494 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Legislature, acting under a fixed and permanent Constitutional law, 
from which it can not depart ; it is a permanent convention of the 
three estates of the kingdom, holding the Constitution itself in its 
keeping, which it may fashion according to its will. The security of 
such a government, so far as security is attained, consists in giving to 
each separate estate, not a qualified, but an absolute check upon the 
others ; of the Lords and Commons upon each other, and of the 
monarch upon both ; this last to be exercised through the medium of 
the veto power, or of those other sources of influence which the 
power and resources of the crown enable it to acquire. 

" The American Congress is a Legislature exercising limited powers, 
clearly specified, and accurately defined, in a written Constitution, 
from which they may not depart, and representing constituents, 
between whom there is an entire equality of rights and community of 
interests. There is thus, in Great Britain and the United States, not 
only a want of analogy, but there exists an absolute contrast between 
those circumstances which can properly enter into the consideration 
of this question. The examination of the veto power as it exists in 
England, can not therefore aid our present inquiry. Excluding, then, 
from our consideration, all these irrelative topics, let us meet tJie real 
issue. Let us not withhold from the people the true and only ques- 
tion which is proposed to submit to their determination. That 
question is : How and to what extent ought the veto power to be 
limited ? The opponents of the resolution say, that the single will 
of the President ought to control the united wills of any number of 
the Senate and House of Representatives, less than two-thirds of each. 
The advocates of the resolution contend, that the united wills of a 
majority of all the Senators and Representatives elected to Congress, 
expressed at one and re-affirmed at the next subsequent session, after 
deliberately considering the reasons of the President, and after per- 
sonal intercourse with their constituents, during the recess, ought to 
prevail over the single will of the President. Mr. President, I found 
my objection to the veto power, as it now exists, on these two propo- 
sitions. 

" 1. All legislative powers granted by the Constitution are vested in 
Congress ; none, therefore, can legitimately belong to the President. 
If in the practical operation of the Government they have been so 
vested, they have been seduced from their original depositary, and 
the purpose of the framers of the Constitution has not been realized, 
but has been frustrated. 

" 2. The practical operation of the Presidential veto, is to turn the 
Legislative power from the halls of Congress, to the Executive chamber. 



JOHN m'phersox berrian. 495 

I speak of the rfficient, not of the formal power. Congress may 
retain the latter. The formal process of enacting laws may still be 
carried on in this, and in the other end of the Capitol. Laws may 
still purport to be enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled ; but 
the efficient power of legislation will reside elseiohere, for the veto power 
though limited inform, has become absolute in fact. 

" But, sir, it is, moreover, the direct and inevitable tendency of that 
power, in its repeated and uncontrolled exercise, to transfer the initia- 
tive from the Legislature t-O the Executive. 

" It was the manifest intention of the framers of the Constitu- 
tion to give to the President a negative upon the legislation of Con- 
gress, which shall be limited, not absolute. 

" In the practical operation of the Government, this power has proved 
to be absolute, not limited. Divided as the people of the United 
States are, and in all time to come will be into parties approaching 
to equality, on prominent political questions, the President of the 
United States, by the possession of the veto power, as it now exists, is 
enabled, first, to restrain, then to control, and finally to direct the 
public will. His will is substituted for their will, and practically on 
subjects of the greatest interest, and, therefore, productive of the 
greatest excitement, the legislative power of the country bends to the 
will, and acknowledges the resistless sway of one man. Is this desira- 
ble ? Is it consistent with the spirit of our institutions? Does the 
Democracy, the real Democracy of the country, desire it? If so, I 
bow, as becomes me to their behest. But in the exercise of my rights 
as a free citizen, in the discharge of my duty as an American Senator, 
I have felt that it was both my right and my duty thus to expose it, 
in its nakedness, to their view." 



496 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



JOHN G. DAVIS. 

The subject of this sketch is one of the prominent men of the 
Wabash Valley. Early associated with Gen. Howard and Gov. Wright, 
he became an ardent Democrat, and a devoted friend of those distin- 
guished men. Mr. Davis is in person tall and slim, full six feet high, 
light hair and eyes, wide mouth, prominent features, high, retreating 
forehead. He is possessed of a high order of talents, was an active 
and energetic member of Congress, and has recently been elected to 
the next Congress from his district. As a speaker he is plain, prac- 
tical, animated, forcible, speaking directly to the question, and is 
always heard with marked attention. Mr. Davis made several able 
speeches in Congress. I give an extract from one on the Pacific Kail- 
road, to show his style, which will be interesting to the reader. 

" In my judgment, sir, no question of public policy has ever been 
agitated among the people, or brought before the American Congress,, 
for its deliberation and action, more momentous in its character or con- 
sequences, or which, if successful, is calculated to result in greater 
practical and lasting benefit to the entire country, than the proposition 
to unite the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a railway across the conti- 
nent. It is, therefore, no matter of surprise, that the American peo- 
ple should look forward, with such deep anxiety and solicitude, to the 
result of our deliberations upon the subject. 

" Sir, the idea of constructing a railway across the continent was, 
but a few years since, regarded by the masses as a wild, visionary, and 
Utopian scheme, having no better foundation for its feasibility than 
the fanciful imaginations of the distinguished gentleman from Mis- 
souri [Mr. Benton], Asa Whitney, of New York, and a few other 
early pioneers in the movement. In f^ict, sir, that class of men, who 
fold their arms, and quietly sit down in the belief that human skill, 
science, and improvement have reached the utmost limit of perfection ; 
who always hang as an incubus upon the skirts of progress and 
advancement in every thing calculated to add wealth, greatness, and 
grandeur to our common country, and who instinctively resist, with a 
zeal worthy of a better cause, every attempt to improve the moral, 
social, political, or commercial condition of their fellow-men, were 
skeptical alike of the practicability of the project, and of the common 
sense of the projectors, whom they viewed as visionary innovators. 

" But, sir, time, which tries all things, has done its work, and the 
project of a railroad to the Pacific is no longer viewed as a visionary 
or impracticable scheme. The North American mind has not been 



JOHN G. DAVIS. 497 

idle or inactive. The people have read, thought, investigated, and 
become convinced. That voice which, but a few years ago, was weak 
and effeminate, is now strong and resistless in its favor. The power 
of reason, truth, and justice has finally triumphed over doubt and 
skepticism ; and now, instead of a solitary voice here and there in 
favor of the necessity and practicability of the enterprise, we find the 
people, East, West, North, and South, with a unanimity hitherto 
unknown, in favor of the project. This voice, this sentiment, has 
found its way into Congress, and demands of the Eepresentatives of 
the people legislative action — prompt, but calm, cautious, prudent 
action. And, sir, should this session terminate without our having 
first matured and adopted some practical and Constitutional plan for 
its early conmencement and execution, we shall return among our 
constituents without a plausible excuse for the neglect of a high and 
paramount duty, and disappoint their just hopes and expectations. 

" The National Legislature has been from time to time, appealed to 
by memorials from more than twenty State Legislatures (among which 
is that of my own State), by large and respectable conventions and 
meetings in every portion, and embracing among the signers men dis- 
tinguished alike by their talent, their energy, and their influence, all 
urging legislative action upon the subject. Prior, however, to the 
last session, these appeals have been unheeded. A deaf ear has been 
turire4 to these unmistakable evidences of popular sentiment, except 
by favorable reports (resulting in no practical action), by committees 
of the Senate and House. 

" Fortunately, however, the aspect of things has changed for the 
better, and I congratulate the country that we have met here ag-ain 
under more favorable auspices. A brighter day has dawned upon the 
project, and the doubt and uncertainty which cast a gloom over the 
hopes of its friends, are fast giving away before the power of truth, 
and the lights of argument and investigation ; and, although the 
sequel may prove me no prophet, I feel confident, from the indications 
around me, tliat a majority of this committee are in favor of giving 
legislative aid and encouragement to this noble enterprise. 

'• The Pacific railway is the most gigantic enterprise the world has 
ever known, and, once completed, is destined to revolutionize the 
trade, travel, and commerce of the earth. But, magnificent as is the 
project, devoted as I am to its success, and grand and beneficial as 
will unquestionably be its results, I shall consent to no extrava- 
gant or reckless legislation ; to the exercise of no doubtful Consti- 
tutional power, in order to accomplish it; and if, unfortunately, it 
shall so turn out that, without this system of legislation and exercise 
32 



498 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

of doubtful power, the work must fail, it can never receive my sup- 
port. In the language of President Pierce, ' We can afford to wait, 
but we can not afford to overlook the ark of our safety.' 

" Mr. Chairman, before this, or any other bill can receive the sanc- 
tion of a majority of this committee, there are a number of important 
inquiries to be first satisfactorily answered ; the three most prominent 
()f which are : 

" 1st. Does the public interest require the construction of the road ? 

" 2d. Where shall it be located ? 

"3d. How, by what means, and by whom shall it be built? 

." And to these points I shall mainly direct my remarks, and res- 
pectfully ask the attention of the committee. 

" First, then, does the public interest require its construction ? I 
answer, without hesitation, affirmatively. 

" Sir, I can well remember, and I am comparatively a young man, 
when members of this House came here from the West on horseback 
— a long and perilous journey — occupying several weeks. In those 
days Western merchants had to adopt the same tedious method of 
travel to and from the Atlantic cities, while they were compelled to 
transport to the West their stocks of merchandise by the still slower 
process of the wagon and the flatboat. But what a change has been 
wrought, by the construction of railroads, in a few years, in the facil- 
ity and rapidity of travel and inter-communication. In fifty hours 
this Capitol can be reached from the most remote parts of the country, 
east of the Rocky Mountains. Construct this road to the Pacific, and 
the journey from the Atlantic cities to the city of San Francisco can 
be made in less than six days, and the entire circuit of the earth can 
be accomplished in ninety-three days ! These are facts, sir, which 
must commend themselves to our fivorable consideration. 

" Sir, the construction of the proposed road is required by every 
consideration of duty and interest. It will give employment to a great 
number of persons throughout the country, who are now engaged in 
pursuits less profitable. 

" Settlements and cultivation will follow the work, and that vast belt 
of country on either side of the road from the Mississippi to the Pacific 
will, on its completion, become densely settled with an industrious, 
hardy, and enterprising population. Our agricultural and mineral 
resources will also become developed, and civilization, enterprise and 
wealth will rise up in that country which is now wilderness and waste. 

" It will open an outlet for the surplus productions of the interior 
to the markets of our Pacific States, China, India, etc., on the one 
side, and Europe on the other. 



JOHN G. DAVIS. 499 

" But suppose we become involved in a war with a foreign Power 
(and sueli may be the fact, at no very distant period, if there be any 
truth in the signs of the times) ; our interest, our duty, and our 
national honor alike require us to protect and defend our possessions 
on the Pacific coast, from attack and invasion. How could this best 
be done? By transporting your men and munitions of war by the 
slow and tardy way of Panama or Tehuantepec, exposed to the hostile 
attack of the enemy, and at the expense of millions of money, and 
the sacrifice of comfort and life ? By the overland route, most of the 
way through a wilderness country, requiring four or five months to 
perform the journey, at a like sacrifice of money, health, comfort, and 
life ? No, sir, construct this road through territory belonging to and 
under the control of our own citizens, and your armies from the 
Atlantic and Western States can reach in safety the city of San Fran- 
cisco in six or seven days, healthy, fresh, and vigorous for duty, and 
with but comparatively trifling cost to the Government. Sir, with 
our present means of communication and intercourse with them, it 
would cost this Government more to defend and protect our Pacific 
States in a war of two years' duration, with any formidable power, than 
the entire cost of constructing this road from the Mississippi to San 
Francisco. 

" Again, such a road would not only facilitate our mail communica- 
tions with the Pacific States, but reduce the time between the Atlantic 
and Pacific from thirty to six days, and enable the Government to 
dispense with the present odious and abominable ocean mail service, so 
dangerous and destructive to human life^ and which is costing the 
country millions of dollars annually. 

" It will also afibrd easy, safe, and rapid facilities for visiting our 
kindred and friends in that distant country ; and bind the States of 
this Union, East and West, in bonds of fraternal brotherhood as 
enduring as the snow-capped mountains which now separate them. 

" This road, when completed, is destined to become the great thor- 
oughfare of nations, revolutionizing the commerce of the world. It 
will, sir, enable the United States to command the carrying trade 
between Europe and China, with all its resulting advantages to our 
citizens. These are not declarations merely, but a careful examination 
of a map of the world, and our geographical position, with a knowledge 
of the cost, time, and risk of the present mode of intercourse between 
these nations, can not fail to convince the judgment of any gentleman 
who will take the time and pains to look into them. But, sir, I must 
leave these important facts and deductions as to the probable effects 
of the completion of this road to abler and more learned statisticians, 



500 EAELY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

who may follow me in this debate, and will pass on to the considera- 
tion of my second inquiry, with the simple remark, that I have omit- 
ted many important reasons why this road is demanded by the best 
interests of the country, and have searched in vain for a reason why 
it should not be constructed. 

" The entire length of the road from the western boundary of Mis- 
souri to the Pacific, will be more than two thousand miles, through an 
uninhabited wilderness, passing through mountain gorges, and over 
trackless deserts ; penetrating a country where, but a few years ago, it 
was supposed the foot of the white man would never tread. It will 
require more than one hundred millions of dollars to construct it. 
All the aid the Government will furnish, and all the private capital 
which may be induced to seek it as an investment, will be required to 
complete this single road. Hence, sir, no bill looking to the immedi- 
ate construction of more than one road by the aid of the Government 
can receive my support. 

" Several routes have been advocated by their respective friends, 
each claimed as possessing superior advantages over the others. The 
most prominent of these routes are : 

" First, Whitney's route. This commences at some point on the lakes 
— say at Chicago, and passing through Iowa, crosses the Eocky Mount- 
ains at the South Pass, in latitude 42°, thence to the head waters of 
the Columbia river, the course of which it follows to the Pacific ocean. 
This route, however, may be regarded as abandoned, and the one 
recently explored by Gov. Stevens, under the direction of the Secretary 
of War, substituted, from the head waters of the upper Mississippi, 
near St. Pavil, to Puget's Sound on the Pacific. This is properly called 
' the northern route,' because it has its eastern terminus at a point 
accessible to the northern and northwestern States, and not to other 
parts of the Union. It passes through a northern climate exclusively, 
and is therefore liable to all the objections, which can be urged to a 
railroad through such a climate on account of cold weather, deep snows, 
etc. But the great objection to it is. that in a great many respects, it 
is local in its character; being at one extreme of the Union. It has 
not enough of nationality about it. But there is another insurmount- 
able objection to it. Puget's Sound, or even the mouth of the Colum- 
bia river, is too far north for a direct trade with Asia, and San Fran- 
cisco is upon a direct line. Again, San Francisco is the commercial 
emporium of the Pacific coast, and has no rival in Oregon ; therefore 
San Francisco is the point at which this road should strike the Pacific. 
Again, one great object to be accomplished by this road, is to bring 
the Atlantic States in direct communication with the gold remons. 



JOHN G. DAVIS. 501 

This can not be accomplished either by a road down the vallc}'^ oi" the 
Columbia, or to Puget's Sound ; for it does not pass through or near 
them. To reach these regions, the road must be further south. 

" Secondly, the San Diego or Gila route. This route has its eastern 
terminus at some point in the southwestern part of the United States 
— say at Texas, and passes across the Rio Grande, at or near Paso 
del Norte : from thence to the Gila river, the course of which it follows 
upon the southern bank (the jjurchase of which is provided for in the 
late Gadsden treaty) to the point about 114° of west longitude ; thence 
across to the valley between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific, and up 
that valley to San Francisco. There is also another eastern terminus 
proposed for this route ; that is at Memphis, in the State of Tennessee ; 
from which point it is proposed to run the road to Santa Fe, in New 
Mexico, across the plains from the Arkansas river, and down the val- 
ley of the Rio Grande to Paso del Norte, from which point the route 
will be the same as the last named one. This is the southcni route. 
While this route is free from the objections which lie against the 
northern one, on account of snows, etc. ; it is liable to precisely the 
same on account of its want of nationality. It is too far south. Be- 
tween these two routes there must be one of a more national character ; 
more accessible to the dilFerent parts of the whole country, and com- 
bining all the advantages that are to be gained by a railroad to the 
Pacific. And this, in my judgment, is the route that has its eastern 
terminus near the mouth of the Kansas rivqr, and running through 
some pass in the Rocky Mountains, between the two routes already 
mentioned, and passing westward, through the Sierra Nevada, to San 
Francisco. This is the central route. It is not liable to the objec- 
tions which are justly urged against both the other routes. It is 
neither at one or the other extreme of the Union, but has its eastern 
terminus near the center, whether we look to the (jcographieal or com- 
mercial center. 

" Sir, if you draw a direct line from the cities of New York or 
Philadelphia to San Francisco, it will pass near the mouth of the Kan- 
sas river, varying in its whole course less than two degrees of latitude. 
If you place your eye upon the map, and look at the lines of railroad 
already constructed and in progress throughout the United States, and 
uniting the Atlantic sea-board with the interior, it will be seen that 
they almost all point to the center of the northwestern States. This 
is because it is the great grain-growing region, the natural granary of 
the world. The laws which regulate trade and commerce produce this 
result. These roads are built by private enterprise and capital, because 
the heavy trade of this section of the Union, and the constant increase 



502 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

of its population and wealth, give the highest reward to both enter- 
prise and capital. 

" Again, sir, St. Joseph, on the western line of Missouri, is not far 
distant from the mouth of the Kansas river. The great chain of rail- 
road from Philadelphia, running due west through Harrishurgh, Pitts- 
burg, Columbus, Indianapolis, Springfield and Hannibal to St. Joseph, 
a distance of 1200 miles, connecting the capitals of Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and thence through the richest portion of 
Missouri, is now in a state of rapid progress, and bids fair to be com- 
pleted in the next two years. Hence this central route will be directly 
connected with other roads running through nearly all the States of 
the Union, so that it will be perfectly accessible from any and every 
part of it. In reference to its accessibility from other points of com- 
mercial importance in the country, it is greatly superior to either of 
the other routes. It has already been shown, that the main lines of 
railroad communication from Boston, New York and Philadelphia to 
the West, are tapped at various points by other roads from the most 
important commercial portions of the Union. Now, sir, if the Pacific 
road is commenced near the mouth of the Kansas river, in order to 
reach any pass through the Rocky Mountains south of the South Pass, 
it must pass through the great plain between Missouri and New Mex- 
ico, and across the head waters of the Arkansas river. At this point, 
or some other point in the neighborhood, a glance at the map will 
show it is easily accessible to branch roads from Ghicago, Memphis 
and New Orleans. 

" In the month of October, 1849, a convention of the friends of the 
Pacific Railroad was held in the city of St. Louis, in which the follow- 
ing States were represented by 835 delegates, to-wit : Missouri, Illin- 
ois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Iowa, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, New Jersey and Louisiana. 
Among the delegates to this convention, I find the names of some of 
our most distinguished statesmen. The question of route was discus- 
sed for several days, and angry and sectional feelings were manifested. 
At one period of its deliberations it was supposed the convention 
would be compelled to adjourn without having come to any definite 
understanding. At this critical period of its progress, my predeces- 
sor, Hon. Richard W. Thompson, proposed the following resolutions: 

" ' Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, it is the duty 
of the General Government to provide, at an early period, for the con- 
struction of a central national railroad from the valley of the Missis- 
sippi to the Pacific ocean.' 

" ' Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, a grand trunk 



JOHN G. DAVIS. 503 

railroad, with hi-anches to St. Louis, Memphis, and Chicago, would be 
such a central and national one.' 

"These resolutions were ?<««?? i'moMS?y adopted. Here, then, sir, is 
the unanimous expression of able and practical representatives from 
fourteen States of this Union in favor of but one grand trunk central 
railroad. I trust that this House will be quite as unanimous in the 
settlement of this question. 

" And lastly, sir, how, and in what manner, and by whom, shall 
this road be built? This is the most difficult question to solve of all. 
The Constitutional power of the Government to construct this road 
was admitted by the last Congress in making the appropriation of 
money at the last session to defray the expenses of surveying the 
various routes, etc. President Pierce, in his message, in speaking of 
this road, says : 

" ' That the Grovernment has not been unmindful of this heretofore, 
is apparent from the aid it has afforded, through appropriations for 
mail facilities and other purposes. But the general subject will now 
present itself under aspects more imposing and more purely national, 
by reason of the surveys ordered by Congress, and now in process of 
completion, for communication by railway across the continent, and 
wholly within the limits of the United States.' 

'^ ;!< ;|< ;|; i\i :^ >;< 

" ' The power to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide 
and maintain a Navy, and to call forth the militia to execute the laws, 
suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, was conferred upon Con- 
gress as a means to provide for the common defense, and to protect a 
territory and population now wide-spread and vastly multiplied. As 
incidental to, and indispensable for the exercise of this power, it must 
sometimes be necessary to construct military roads and protect har- 
bors of refuge. To appropriations by Congress for such objects no 
sound objection can be made.' 

JjC -^-> ^ ^ ^ ^ 5fJ Jji 

" ' The magnitude of the enterprise contemplated has aroused, and 
doubtless will continue to excite, a very general interest throughout 
the country. In its political, its commercial, and its military bear- 
ings, it has varied, great, and increasing claims to consideration. The 
heavy expense, the great delay, and, at times, fatality attending travel 
by either of the Isthmus routes, have demonstrated the advantage 
which would result from inter-territorial communication by such safe 
and rapid means as a railroad would supply. 

" ' These difficulties, which have been encountered in a period of 
peace, would be magnified and still further increased in time of war. 



5U4 EARLY INDIAT^A TRIALS. 

But while the embarrassments ah-eady eueountered, and others under 
new contingencies to be anticipated, may serve strikingly to exhibit 
the importance of such a work, neither these, nor all considerations 
combined, can have an appreciable value, when weighed against the 
obligation strictly to adhere to the Constitution, and faithfully to exe- 
cute the powers it confers. Within this limit, and to the extent of 
the interest of the Government involved, it would seem both expe- 
dient and proper, if an economical and practicable route shall be 
found, to aid, by all Constitutional means, in the construction of a 
road which will unite, by speedy transit, the populations of the Pacific 
and Atlantic States.' 

" The President thus fully recognizes the necessity and importance 
of the work ; and, within the limits therein expressed, and to the 
extent of the interest of the Government involved, considers it expe- 
dient and proper for the Government to aid, by all Constitutional 
means, in its construction. 

" The Secretary of War, in his late report to Congress, in speaking 
of this road, says : 

" ' No work for artificial communication has ever exceeded it in 
extent and physical difiiculty. Its execution, however, is within the 
means and power of the American people.' 

" Again : 

" ' If I seem to have pressed the magnitude of the obstacles to a 
successful execution of the contemplated work, it has not been to 
suggest the abandonment of the undertaking, but only to enforce the 
propriety of much caution in the preliminary steps, and the necessity 
of concentrating all the means which can be made available to the 
completion of so gigantic a project.' 

" These extracts are sufficient to show that Secretary Davis is in 
favor of the prosecution of the work, and that he does not regard it 
as unconstitutional. He is known to the country as a strict construc- 
tionist, and his opinions are, therefore, entitled to the highest consid- 
eration. 

"The Constitutional power of Congress to construct works of this 
kind (national in their character) has long since been conceded by 
our ablest statesmen. 

" But this question is relieved from all Constitutional doubt because 
the road will pass exclusively through the Territories of the United 
States until it strikes the California line — a distance of more than six- 
teen hundred miles. No one doubts the power of the Government to 
construct roads for military purposes through the Territories. The 
Oonstitutioual power to do this has been exercised each session of Con- 



JOHN G. DAVIS. 505 

gress since I have bad the honor of a seat here, and perhaps since the 
formation of the Government. 

'' How far the Government, as a matter of expediency, ought to 
make appropriations of money to construct such roads through its 
Territories I am not prepared to say. The hill before us appropriates 
S600 per mile per annum to the persons who may contract to 
build the road for the use of the same by the United States for postal, 
military, naval, and all other Government purposes, as well in time of 
war as of peace, for a term of years. This is clearly Constitutional, 
and I am not prepared to say that it is not both right and expedient. 

" The bill further provides for a grant of lands in alternate sections 
on each side of the road to aid in its construction. This grant is in 
accordance with numerous precedents, and the established practice of 
the Government, and is entirely free from Constitutional objections. 
Sir, I look to this grant of land, and the private enterprise of the 
countr}^, as the real and substantial sources from whence the means are 
to come to accomplish this work. I am willing to grant all the lands 
asked for by this bill ; and, if that shall be found insufficient, to make 
a still more liberal grant. By this means the Government instead of 
making a contribution, would actually be the gainer. Who can doubt 
that the alternate sections reserved to the Government would find a 
ready sale at double their minimum value? No one. sir, who has any 
knowledge of the practical working of this system. Grants of this 
kind have been made by Congress to aid in the construction of roads 
of doubtful utility and insignificant when compared with this vast 
enterprise. 

" The Government is the owner of fourteen hundred millions of 
acres of land, unsettled, uncultivated, in a state of nature. It is her 
clear and manifest interest to hold out every reasonable inducement 
for their settlement and cultivation. My doctrine now is, and ever 
has been, that, after the payment of the debts for which they were 
pledged, they should cease to be a source of revenue to the Govern- 
ment. Sir, the Government ought not to be a speculator in the lands 
which God intended for cultivation by man. Let no one suppose 
that the public domain is to be exhausted soon, and that none of it be 
left for the hardy pioneer who goes West to seek a home for himself 
and his family. Such an idea would be preposterous ; the next cen- 
tury will not dawn upon the realization of such an event. Make the 
calculation, and you will find that, according to the ratio of the sales 
for the last ten years, it will take several centuries to dispose of all 
these lands. Then, sir, make this grant of lands, make it liberally, 
and the great point has been achieved. The basis upon which this 



506 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

structure is to be erected has been permanently fixed. It Avill give 
character to the work, and invite private capital at home, and from 
abroad, to seek investments in its stocks, promising, in the future, a 
profitable return to the holders. 

" 1 have thus, Mr. Chairman, briefly alluded to the kind and extent 
of aid Congress ought to extend to the work. Shall the Government 
construct this road as a Grovernment work? I answer, no! All 
experience shows that public works can be constructed by private 
enterprise at a cost of fifty per cent, less than they can be constructed 
by the Government. This is upon the principle that a prudent man 
always manages his own affairs more safely and economically for him- 
self than he can by an agent. Government agents, in the expendi- 
ture of public money, too often overlook the principles of economy, 
and the Government becomes the victim of their faithless extrava- 
gance. The evils of this system may be seen in the history of the 
times from 1836 to 1841, when the State governments engaged in 
their vast system of improvements, which broke down, crushing under 
its ruins, for the time being, the hopes and energies of the people. 
The scenes of those years are yet fresh in our recollections, and should 
warn us of the dangers to be apprehended in venturing upon this 
perilous track. 

" Sir, grant the lands, and give such incidental aid as may seem 
expedient and proper, without violating the Constitution. Let the 
work to such private companies as will undertake it on the most 
favorable terms, and in this way you will secure its completion in the 
shortest period, and on the most economical plan. 

" It is, however, a matter for grave consideration whether the road, 
when completed, should be controlled or operated by the Government, 
or by the companies by whom it shall have been constructed. My 
present impression is, that this matter should be reserved, or, at least, 
not placed entirely beyond the future control of Congress. We 
should, at least, not surrender the right of regulating the rate of 
charges for the transportation of freight and passengers over it, so as 
to have within our control the power of protecting the people from 
unreasonable and oppressive taxation. 

" Sir, this is a stupendous scheme. Its consummation is urged by 
every consideration of social, political, and commercial interest ; and 
if it can be accomplished by Constitutional legislation, and within the 
general rules thus briefly expressed, it shall receive my support. 

" I will say in conclusion, sir, that there is one other view of the 
subject which should not be entirely overlooked. It is this : What- 
ever we may do toward aiding in the completion of this great work, 



JOHN G. DAVIS. ^ 507 

is not like money squandered or dissipated, but like capital invested 
in a profitable and judicious manner. It will not be like money sunk, 
or lost to the country, but every dollar's worth of land will yield a 
handsome per cent. Under monarchical or oligarchical governments, 
vast sums, drawn from the hard earnings of the people, are annually 
wasted in the support of military establishments, designed to awe and 
keep in subjection the masses, or to support, in princely extravagance, 
a privileged class— a favorite few. In the case of this road, however, 
every acre of the public domain expended in its completion, will not 
only strengthen the bonds of our Union and increase our means of 
defense, but must inure to the welfare and glory of our common 
country. 



508 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

THOMAS CORWIN. 

With the exception of Henry Clay, perhaps no other civilian in 
the West has filled so large a space in the public mind as Thomas Cor- 
win of Ohio. It would require a volume to sketch his biography. It 
is foreign to my purpose to attempt this. I speak of him as I saw and 
knew him personally. Mr. Corwin was a remarkable man ; raised by 
the force of his native powers and his own exertions, without the 
advantages of an early education, from the indigent son of humble 
parents, to the high offices of member of Congress, Governor of Ohio, 
United States Senator and Secretary of the Treasury, in all of which 
high positions, he sustained himself to the entire satisfoction of the 
country. I need not say that he possessed talents of the very first 
order. As a speaker, he stood among the very first in the nation, on 
whatever platform he occupied, whether at the bar, on the floor of the 
House of Representatives, in the Senate Chamber, or on the public 
stands, before the thousands of his assembled countrymen. I have 
considered him the best and most efficient popular speaker I ever heard. 
He infused into his speeches by his looks and gestures a comic ele- 
ment, that gave point to his argument, and kept his hearers completely 
under his control. He always abounded in anecdotes of the right 
kind, and he knew just how, and when to use them. If he spoke two, 
three, or four hours, his speech was always too short for his audience. 
I knew Mr. Corwin well for many years, and I always placed him 
among the very first men in the nation. In the social circle, he was 
the life of every body around him. When I knew him in the strength 
of his manhood, he was straight, and erect, five feet eight inches high, 
well built, large round head, capacious brain, coal black hair and eyes, 
full fJice, broad full chest, dark complexion, active on his feet, lively, 
talkative, and ready at retort. I have before me, a number of his able 
speeches delivered in Congress, to select a single extract from, to show 
the style of this great orator, and have thought the reader would thank 
me for the extract I give from his speech in 1840, in reply to Gen. 
Crary, in the House of Representatives. I stood by during the delivery. 
The manner of the delivery was inimitable ; the speech loses much in 
being put upon paper. The eyes of the House were upon Gen. CrsiTy, 
he looked as if he had lost all his friends. I received a very interesting 
private letter from Mr. Corwin dated Cincinnati October, 12th, 1857, 
in which in closing he says, " my i-heunia(isyn /prexents me from giv- 
ing you further fsitigue." I saw him last week screwed almost round 
with inflammatory rheumatism, accompanied by exci'uciating pain. 
He seemed to bear it like a philosopher. 



THOMAS CORWIN. 509 

Mr. CoRWiN, of Ohio, rose and said : " Mr. Speaker, I am admon- 
ished, by the eager solicitations of gentlemen around me to give way 
for a motion to adjourn, of that practice of the House which accords 
us more of leisure on this day than is allowed us on any other day 
of the week. The servants of other good masters are, I believe, 
indulged in a sort of saturnalia in the afternoon of Saturday, and we 
have supposed that our kind masters, the people, would be willing 
to grant us, their most faithful slaves, a similar respite from toil. It 
is now past three o'clock in the afternoon, and I should be very will- 
ing to pause in the discussion, were I not urged, by those menacing- 
cries of ' Go on,' from various parts of the House. In this state of 
things, I can not hope to summon to any thing like attention the 
unquiet minds of many, or the jaded and worn-down faculties of a 
still larger portion of the House. I hope, however, the House will 
not withhold from me a boon which I have often seen granted to oth- 
ers, that is, the privilege of speaking without being oppressed by a 
crowded audience, which is accompanied by this additional advantage, 
that the orator, thus situated, can at least listen to and hear himself. 

" If you, Mr. Speaker, and the members of this House, have given 
that attention to the speech of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Crary), made yesterday, which some of us here thought it our duty to 
bestow, I am sure the novelty of the scene, to say nothing more of it, 
must have arrested your curiosity, if, indeed, it did not give rise to 
profound reflection. 

" I need not remind the House, that it is a rule here (as I suppose 
it is every where else, where men dispute by any rule at all), that what 
is said in debate should be relevant and pertinent to the subject under 
discussion. The question before us is a proposition to instruct the 
Committee of Ways and Means to report a bill granting four hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars to continue the construction of the Cumber- 
land road, in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The objections 
to the measure are, either that this Government is in no sense bound 
by compact to make the road, or that it is not a work of any national 
concern, but merely of local interest, or that the present exhaiisted 
state of the Treasury will not warrant the appropriation, admitting the 
object of it to be fairly within the Constitutional province of Congress. 

" If the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Pickens), and the 
gentleman from Maine (Mr. Parris), who consider the Cumbei'land 
road a work of mere sectional advantage to a very small 2"»oi'tion of 
the people, have attended to the sage disquisitions of the gentleman 
from Michigan on the art of war, they must now either come to the 



510 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

conclusion, that almost the whole of the gentleman's speech is what 
old-fashioned people would call a ' non sequitur,' or else that this road 
connects itself, with not merely the military defenses of the Union, 
but is interwoven, most intimately, with the progress of science, and 
especially that most difficult of all sciences, the j^roper application of 
strategy to the exigencies of barbarian warfare. It will be seen, that 
the f\ir-seeing sagacity, and long-reaching understanding of the gen- 
tleman from Michigan has discovered that, before we can vote with a 
clear conscience on the instructions proposed, we must be well-informed 
as to the number of Indians who fought at the battle of Tippecanoe, 
in 1811 ; how the savages were painted, whether red, black, or blue, 
or whether all were blended on their barbarian faces. Further, accord- 
ing to his views of the subject, before we vote money to make a road, 
we must know and approve of what Gen. Harrison thought, said, and 
did, at the battle of Tippecanoe ! 

''Again, upon this process of reasoning we must inquire, where a 
general should be when a battle begins, especially in the niglit, and 
what his position during the fight, and where he should be found 
when it is over ; and, j^articularly, how a Kentuckian behaves himself, 
when he hears an Indian war-whoop, in day or night. And, after 
settling all these puzzling propositions, still we must fully understand 
how, and by whom, the battle of the Thames was fought, and in what 
manner it then and there became our troops, regular and militia, to 
conduct themselves. Sir, it must be obvious, that if these topics are 
germain to the subject, then does the Cumberland road encompass 
all the interests, and all the subjects, that touch the rights, duties, 
and destinies of the civilized world ; and I hope we shall hear no 
more, from Southern gentlemen, of the narrow, sectional, or unconsti- 
tutional character of the proposed measure. That branch of the 
siibject is, I hope, forever quieted, perhaps unintentionally, by the 
gentleman from Michigan. His military criticism, if it has not 
answered the purposes intended, has at least, in this way, done some 
service to the Cumberland road. And if my poor halting comprehen- 
sion has not blundered, in pursuing the soaring upward flight of my 
friend from Michigan, he has in this discussion written a new chapter 
in the ' rcgnJce pliihsophandi,'' and made not our ourselves only, but 
the whole world his debtors in gratitude, by overturning the old worn 
out principles of the ' inductive system.' 

" Mr. Speaker, there have been many and ponderous volumes writ- 
ten, and various unctuous discourses delivered, on the doctrine of 
' association.' Dugald Stewart, a Scotch gentleman, of no mean 
pretension in his day, thought much, and wrote much concerning that 



THOMAS COftWIN. 511 

principle in mental philosophy ; and Brown, another of the same 
school, but of later date, has also written and said much on the same 
subject. This latter gentleman, I think, calls it ^ sicr/gcstion ;' but 
never, I venture to say, did any metaphysician, pushing his researches 
farthest and deepest, into that occult science, dream that would come 
to pass, which we have discovered and clearly developed — that is, 
that two subjects, so unlike as an appropriation to a road in 1840, 
and the tactics proper in Indian war in 1811, were not merely akin, 
but actually, identically the same. 

" Mr. Speaker, this discussion, I should think, if not absolutely 
absurd and utterly ridiculous, which my respect for the gentleman 
from Michigan, and the American Congress, will not allow me to sup- 
pose, has elicited another trait in the American character, which has 
been the subject of great admiration with intelligent travelers from 
the old world. Foreigners have admired the ease with which we Yan- 
kees, as they call us, can turn our hands to any business or pursuit, 
public or private ; and this has been brought forward, by our own 
people, as a proof that man, in this great and free republic, is a being 
very far superior to the same animal in other parts of the globe less 
favored than ours. A proof of the most convincing character of this 
truth, so flattering to our national pride, is exhibited before our eyes, 
in the gentleman from Michigan, delivering to the world a grave lec- 
ture on the campaigns of General Harrison, including a variety of very 
interesting military events, in the years 1811, 1812, and 1813, In all 
other countries, and in all former times, before now, a gentleman who 
would either speak or be listened to, on the subject of war, involving 
subtle criticisms on strategy, and careful reviews of marches, sieges, 
battles, regular and casual, and irregular onslaughts, would be required 
to. show, first, that he had studied much, investigated fully, and 
digested well, the science and history of his subject. But here, sir, no 
such painful preparation is required ; witness the gentleman from 
Michigan. He has announced to the House that he is a militia gen- 
eral on the peace establishment! ! That he is a lawyer we know, tol- 
erably well read in Tidd's Practice and Espinasse's Nisi Prius. These 
studies, so happily adapted to the subject of war, with an appointment 
in the militia in time of peace, furnish him, at once, with all the 
knowledge necessary to discourse to us, as from high authority, 
upon all the mysteries in the ' trade of death.' Again, Mr. Speaker, 
it must occur to every one, that ice, to whom these questions are sub- 
mitted, and these military criticisms are addressed, being all colonels 
at least, and most of us, like the gentleman himself, brigadiers, are, 
of all conceivable tribunals, best qualified to decide any nice point, 



512 EAELY IITDIANA TKIALS, 

connected with military science. I hope the House will not be 
alarmed by an impression, that I am about to discuss one or the other 
of the military questions now before us at length, but I wish to sub- 
mit a remark or two, by way of preparing us for a proper appreciation 
of the merits of the discourse we have heard. I trust, as we are all 
brother officers, that the gentleman from Michigan, and the two hun- 
dred and forty colonels or generals, of this honorable House, will 
receive what I have to say, as coming from an old brother in arms, 
and addressed to them in a spirit of candor, 

' Such as becomes comrades free, 
Reposing after victory.' 

" Sir, we all know the military studies of the gentleman from 
Michigan, before he was promoted. I take it to be, beyond a reason- 
able doubt, that he had perused with great care the title page of ' Baron 
Steuben.' Nay, I go further ; as the gentleman has incidentally 
assured us he is prone to look into musty and neglected volumes, I 
venture to assert, without vouching the fact from personal knowledge, 
that he has prosecuted his researches so far as to be able to know that 
the rear rank stands right behind the front. This, I think, is fairly 
inferable from what I understood him to say of the lines of encamp- 
ment at Tippecanoe. Thus we see, Mr. Speaker, that the gentleman 
from Michigan, so far as study can give us a knowledge of a subject, 
comes before us with claims to great profundity. But this is a sub- 
ject, which, of all others, requires the aid of actual experience to 
make us wise. Now the gentleman from Michigan, being a militia 
general, as he has told us, his brother officers, in that simple statement 
has revealed the glorious history of toils, privations, sacrifices, and 
bloody scenes, through which we know, from experience and observa- 
tion, a militia officer in time of peace is sure to pass. We all, in 
fancy, now see the gentleman from Michigan in that most dangerous 
and glorious event in the life of a militia general on the peace estab- 
lishment — a parade day ! That day for which all the other days of 
his life seem to have been made. We can see the troops in motion ; 
umbrellas, hoe and ax handles, and other like deadly implements of 
war overshadowing all the field, when lo ! the leader of the host 

approaches, 

'Far oif liis coming shines;' 

his plume, white, after the fashion of the great Bourbon, is of ample 
length, and reads its doleful history in the bereaved necks and bosoms 
of forty neighboring hen-roosts ! Like the great Suwaroff, he seems 
somewhat careless in forms and points of dress; hence his epaulets 
may be on his shoulders, back, or sides, but still gleaming, gloriously 



THOMAS CORWIN. 513 

gleaming in the sun. Mounted he is, too, let it not be forgotten. 
Need I describe to the colonels and generals of this honorable House 
the steed which heroes bestride on such occasions? No, I see the 
memor}^ of other days is with you. You see before you the gentleman 
from Michigan mounted on his crop-eared, bushy-tailed mare, the 
singular obliquities of whose hinder limbs is described by that most 
expressive phrase, 'sickle hams' — her hight just fourteen hands, 'all 
told ; ' yes, sir, there you see his ' steed that laughs at the shaking of 
the spear; ' that is, his 'war-horse whose neck is clothed with thun- 
der.' Mr. Speaker, we have glowing descriptions in history of Alex- 
ander the Great, and his war-horse Bucephalus, at the head of the 
invincible Macedonian phalanx ; but, sir, such are the improvements 
of modern times, that every one must see, that our militia general, 
with his crop-eared mare, with bushy tail and sickle ham, would liter- 
ally frighten off a battle-field, an hundred Alexanders. But, sir, to 
the history of the parade day. The general thus mounted and 
equipped, is in the field and ready for action. On the eve of some 
desperate enterprise, such as giving order to shoulder arms, it maybe, 
there occurs a crisis, one of the accidents of war which no sagacity 
could foresee or prevent. A cloud rises and passes over the sun ! 
Here an occasion occurs for the display of that greatest of all traits in 
the character of a commander, that tact which enables him to seize 
upon and turn to good account, events unlooked for, as they arise. 
Now for the caution wherewith the Roman Fabius foiled the skill 
and courage of Hannibal. A retreat is ordered, and troops and gen- 
eral, in a twinkling, are found safely bivouacked in a neighboring 
grocery ! But, even here, the general still has room for the exhibition 
of heroic deeds. Hot from the field, and chafed with the untoward 
events of the day, your general imi-heaths his trenchant blade, eighteen 
inches in length, as you will well remember, and, with an energy and 
remorseless fury, he slices the watermelons that lie in heaps around 
him, and shares them with his surviving friends. Other of the sinews 
of war are not wanting here. Whisky, Mr. Speaker, that great lev- 
eler of modern times, is here also, and the shells of the watermelons 
are filled to the brim. Here again, Mr. Speaker, is shown how the 
extremes of barbarism and civilization meet. As the Scandinavian 
heroes of old, after the fatigues of war, drank wine with the skulls of 
their slaughtered enemies, in Odin's Halls, so now our militia general 
/ and his forces, from the skulls of melons thixs vanquished, in copious 
draughts of whisky, assuage the heroic fire of their souls, after the 
bloody scenes of a parade day. But alas, for this short-lived race of 
ours, all things will have an end, and so even is it with the glorious 
33 



514 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

achievements of our general. Time is on the wing, and will not stay 
his flight ; the sun, as if frightened at the mighty events of the day, 
rides down the sky, and at the close of the day when ' the hamlet is 
still,' the curtain of night drops upon the scene, 

' And glory, like the phenix in its fires, 
Exhales its odors, blazes, and expires.' 

" Such, sir, has been the experience in war of the gentleman from 
Michigan. We know this from the simple annunciation that he is 
and has been a brigadier of militia in time of peace. And now, having 
a full understanding of the qualifications of our learned general, 
both from study and practice, I hope the House will see, that it 
should give its profound reflection to his discourses on the art of war. 
And this it will be more inclined to, when we take into view, that 
the gentleman has, in his review of General Harrison's campaigns, 
modestly imputed to the latter great mistakes, gross blunders, imbe- 
cility, and even worse than this, as I shall show hereafter. The force, 
too, of the lecture of our learned and experienced friend from Michi- 
gan, is certainly greatly enhanced, when we consider another admitted 
fact, which is, that the general whose imbecility and errors he has dis- 
covered, has not, like the gentleman from Michigan, the great advan- 
tage of serving in watermelon campaigns, but only fought fierce 
Indians, in the dark forests of the West, under such stupid fellows 
as Anthony Wayne, and was afterward appointed to the command of 
large armies, by the advice of such an inexperienced boy as Governor 
Shelby, the hero of King's Mountain. 

"And now, Mr. Speaker, as I have the temerity to entertain doubts, 
and with great deference to diflFerin my opinions on this military ques- 
tion with the gentleman from Michigan, I desire to state a few histor- 
ical facts concerning Gen. Harrison, whom the general from Michigan 
has pronounced incapable, imbecile, and. as I shall notice hereafter, 
something worse even than these. Gen. Harrison was commissioned 
by Gen. Washington an oflBcer of the regular army of the United 
States in the year 1791. He served as an aid to Gen. Anthony Wayne, 
in the campaign against the Indians, which resulted in the battle of 
the Rapids of the Maumee, in the fall of 1794. Thus, in his youth, 
he was selected by Gen. Wayne as one of his military family. And 
what did this youthful ofiicer do in that memorable battle of the 
Rapids ? Here, Mr. Speaker, let me summon a witness merely to 
show how military men may diff"er. The witness I call to controvert 
the opinion of the gentleman from Michigan is Gen. Anthony Wayne. 
In his letter to the Secretary of War, giving an account of the battle 
of the Rapids, he says : 



THOMAS CORWIN. 515 

" ' My faithful and gallant Lieutenant Harrison rendered the most 
essential services, by communicatiug my orders in every direction, and 
by his conduct and bravery, exciting the troops to press for victory.' 

" Sir, this evidence was given by Gen. Wayne, in the year 1794, 
some time, I imagine, before the gentleman from Michigan was born, 
and long before he became a militia general, and long, very long, 
before he ever perused the title page of Baron Steuben. Mr. Speaker, 
let me remind the House, in passing, that this battle and victory over 
the Indian forces of the Northwest, in which, according to the testi- 
mony of Gen. Wayne, ' Lieutenant Harrison rendered the most essen- 
tial services, by his conduct and bravery,' gave peace to an exposed 
line of frontier, extending from Pittsburgh to the southern borders 
of Tennessee. It was, in truth, the close of the war of the Revolu- 
tion ; for the Indians who took part with Great Britain in our Revolu- 
tionary struggle never laid down their arms, until after they were 
vanquished by Wayne, in 1794. 

" We now come to see something of the man, the general, whose 
military history our able and experienced general from Michigan has 
reviewed. We know, that debates like this have sometimes been had 
in the British Parliament. There, I believe, the discussion was usu- 
ally conducted by those in the House, who had seen, and not merely 
heard of service. We all know that Colonel Napier has, in several 
volumes, reviewed the campaigns of Wellington, and criticised the 
movements and merits of Beresford, and Soult, and Massena, and 
many others, quite, yes, I say, quite as well known in military history 
as any of us, not even excepting our general from Michigan. We 
respect the opinions of Napier, because we know he not only thought 
of war, but that he fought, too. We respect and admire that combin- 
ation of military skill, with profound statesmanlike views which we 
find in ' Cesar's Commentaries,' because we know the ' mighty Julius' 
was a soldier, trained in the field, and inured to the accidents and 
dangers of war. But, sir, we generals of Congress require no such 
painful discipline to give value to our opinions. We men of the 19th 
century know all things intuitively. We understand perfectly the 
military art by nature. Yes, sir, the notions of the gentleman from 
Michigan agree exactly with a sage by the name of ' Dogberry,' who 
insisted that ' reading and writing come by nature.' Mr. Speaker, we 
have heard and read much of ' the advance of knowledge, the improve- 
ment of the species, and the great march of mind,' but never till now 
have we understood the extent of meaning in these pregnant phrases. 
For instance, the gentleman from Michigan asserts that Gen. Harrison 
has none of the qualities of a general, because, at the battle of 



516 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Tippecanoe, lie was found at one time at a distance from his tent, 
urging liis men on to battle. He exposed his person too much, it 
seems. He should have staid at his tent, and waited for the officers 
to come to him for orders. Well, sir, see now to what conclusi-on this 
leads us. Napoleon seized a standard at Lodi, and rushed in front of 
his columns, across a narrow bridge, which was swept by a whole park 
of German artillery. Hence, Napoleon was no officer; he did not 
know how to command an army. He, like Harrison, exposed his 
person too much. Oh, Mr. Speaker, what a pity for poor Napoleon, 
that he had not studied Steuben, and slaughtered watermelons with us 
natural-born generals of this great age of the world! Sir, it might 
have altered the map of Europe ; nay, changed the destinies of the 
world ! 

" Again : Alexander the Great spurred his horse foremost into the 
river, and led his Macedonians across the Granicus, to rout the Per- 
Bians who stood full opposed on the other side of the stream. True, 
this youth conquered the world, and made himself master of what had 
constituted the Medean, Persian, Assyrian, and Chaldean empires. 
Still, according to the judgment of us warriors by nature, the mighty 
Macedonian would have consulted good sense, by coming over here, 
if indeed, there were any here hereabouts in those days, and studying, 
like my friend from Michigan, first Tidd's Practice, and Espinasse's 
Nisi Prius, and a little snatch of Steuben, and serving as a general of 
militia awhile. Sir, Alexander the Great might have made a man of 
himself in the art of war, had he even been a member of our Congress, 
and heard us colonels discuss the subject of an afternoon or two. 
Indeed, Alexander or Satan, I doubt not, would have improved greatly 
in strategy by observing, during this session, the tactics of the Admin- 
istration party, on the New Jersey election question. Mr. Speaker, 
this objection to a general, because he will fight, is not original with 
my friend from Michigan. I remember a great authority in point, 
agreeing Avith the gentleman in this. In the times of the Henrys, 
4th and 5th of England there lived one Captain Jack Falstaff". If 
Shakspeare may be trusted, his opinions of the art military were exact- 
ly those of the gentleman from Michigan. He uniformly declared, 
as his deliberate judgment on the subject, that ' discretion was the 
better part of valor ; ' and this is an authority for the gentleman. 
But who shall decide? Thus the authority stands. — Alexander the 
mighty Greek, and Napoleon Bonaparte, and Harrison, on one side, 
and Captain John Falstafi" and the General from Michigan on the 
other! Sir, I must leave a question thus sustained by authorities, 
both ways, to posterity. Perhaps the lights of another age may ena- 



THOMAS CORWIN. 517 

ble the world to decide it ; I confess my inability to say on which side 
the weight of authority lies. 

" I hope I may obtain the pardon of the American Congress, for 
adverting in this discussion to another matter, gravely put forward by 
the gentleman from Michigan. Without the slightest feeling of dis- 
respect to that gentleman, I must be allowed to say that his opinions 
(hastily, I am sure) obtruded on the House in this military question, 
can only be considered as subjects of merriment. 

" But I come to notice, since I am compelled to it, one observation 
of the gentleman, which I feel quite certain, on reflection, he will 
regret himself. In a sort of parenthesis in his speech, he said that 
a rumor prevailed at the time (alluding to the battle of Tippecanoe) 
that Colonel eloseph H. Davies, of Kentucky, who commanded a squad- 
ron of cavalry thei'e,was by some trick of General Harrison, mounted, 
during the battle, on a white horse belonging to the Gen., and that, 
being thus conspicuous in the fight, he was a mark for the assailing 
Indians, and fell in a charge at the head of his men. The gentleman 
says he does not vouch for the truth of this. Sir, it is well that he 
does not vouch here for the truth of a long-exploded slander. It re- 
quires a bold man, a man possessing a great deal of moral courage, to 
make even an allusion to a charge such as that, against one whose only 
possessions in this world are his character for courage and conduct in 
war in his country's defense, and his unstained integrity in the vari- 
ous civil ofllices it has been his duty to occupy. Did not the gentle- 
man know that this vile story was known by every intelligent man 
west of the mountains to be totally without foundation ? The gentle- 
man seemed to appeal to the gallant Kentuckians to prove the truth 
of this iunucnd(\ He spoke of the blood of their countrymen so pro- 
fusely poured out at Tippecanoe, as if they would give countenance to 
the idea that the gallant Davies, who fell in that engagement, fell a 
victim to the artifice of the commanding general, and their other gal- 
lant sons who fell there, were wantonly sacrificed by the gross igno- 
rance of Gen. Harrison in Indian warfare. Now sir, before the gen- 
tleman made this appeal, he should have remembered a few historical 
facts, which if known to him, as I should supjjose they were to every 
other man twenty years of age in Western America, would make the 
whole speech of that gentleman little else than a wanton insult to the 
understanding of the people and government of Kentucky. Let us 
briefly notice the fiicts. 

" In November, 1811, the battle of Tippecanoe was fought. There 
Col. Davies and Col. Owens with other Kentuckians fell. These, 
says the gentleman (at least he insiniiatos it), were sacrificed by either 



518 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

the cowardly artifice or by the ignorance of Gen. Harrison. Now, Mr. 
Speaker, I abhor the habit of open flattery, nay, I do not like to look 
in the face of a man, and speak of him in warm terms of eulogium, 
however he may deserve it ; but sir, on this occasion I am obliged to 
say, what history will attest, of the people of Kentucky. If any com- 
munity of people ever lived, from the time of the dispersion on the 
plain of Shinar up to this day, who were literally cradled in war, it is 
to be found in the State of Kentucky. From the first exploration of 
the country by Daniel Boone up to the year 1794, they were engaged 
in one incessant battle with the savages of the West. Trace the path 
of an Indian incursion any where over the great valley of the West, 
and you will find it red with Kentucky blood. Wander over any 
of the battle-fields of that great theater of savage war, and you will 
find it white with the bones of her children. In childhood they fought 
the Indians, with their sisters and mothers, in their dwellings. In 
youth and ripe manhood they fought them in ambuscades and open 
battle-fields. Such were the men of Kentucky in 1811, when the bat- 
tle of Tippecanoe was fought. There too, as we know, they were still 
found foremost where life was to be lost or glory won ; and there they 
were commanded by Gen. Harrison. Now, sir, if in that battle Gen. 
Harrison had not conducted as became a soldier and a general, would 
not such men have seen and known it? Did Kentucky in 1811, 
mourning as she then did the loss of one of her greatest and most valu- 
ed citizens, condemn (as the gentleman from Michigan has attempted 
to) the conduct of the general who commanded in that battle ? 
" Let us see how they testified. 

" In January, 1812, two mouths after the battle of Tippecanoe, the 
Legislature of Kentucky was in session. On the 7th of January, 1812, 
the following resolution passed the body : 

" ' Resolved hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the State 
of Kentucki/, That in the late campaign against the Indians, upon the 
Wabash, Gov. William Henry Harrison has behaved like a hero, a 
patriot, and a general ; and that for his cool, deliberate, skillful, and 
gallant conduct in the battle 'of Tippecanoe, he well deserves the 
warmest thanks of his country, and the nation.' 

" Mr. Speaker, the resolution I have just read, was presented by 
John J. Crittenden, now a Senator from the State of Kentucky, whona 
to name is to call to the minds of all who know him, a man whose 
urbanity and A^aried accomplishments present a model of an American 
gentleman, whose wisdom, eloquence, and integrity, have won for him 
the first rank among American statesmen. Such a man, with both 
branches of the Kentucky Legislature, have testified, two months only 



THOMAS CORWIN. 519 

after the event took place, that in the campaign and battle of Tippe- 
canoe, Gen. Harrison combined the skill and conduct- of an able 
commander, with the valor of a soldier, and the patriotism of an 
American. Who rises up twenty-eight years afterward to contradict 
this ? The young gentleman from Michigan ! He who, at the time 
referred to, was probably conning Webster's spelling-book in some 
village school in Connecticut. But, Mr. Speaker, I must call another 
witness upon the point in issue here. On the 12th of November, 
1811, the Territorial Legislature of Indiana was in session. This is 
just five days after the battle. That Legislature, through the Speaker 
of its House of Kepresentatives, Gen. William Johnson, addressed 
Gen. Harrison in the following terms : 

" ' Sir : The House of Representatives of the Indiana Territory, in 
their own name, and in behalf of their constituents, most cordially 
reciprocate the congratulations of your Excellency on the glorious 
result of the late sanguinary conflict with the Shawnee Prophet, and 
the tribes of Indians confederated with him. When we see displayed 
in behalf of our country, not only the consummate abilities of the 
general, but the heroism of the man ; and when we take into view the 
benefits whifth must result to that country from those exertions, we 
can not, for a moment, withhold our meed of applause.' 

" Here, sir, we have two Legislatures of the States whose citizens 
composed the militia force at Tippecanoe, grieved and smarting under 
the loss of their fellow-citizens, uniting, in solemn council, in bearing 
their testimony to the skill and bravery displayed by Gen. Harrison 
in that battle, which the gentleman from Michigan, with a self-com- 
placency that might well pass for insanity, now says ^e has discovered, 
was marked by palpable incapacity in the commanding general. But, 
Mr. Speaker, I must call yet another, nay, several other witnesses to 
confront the opinion of the Michigan general. 

" In August, 1812, about nine months after the battle of Tippecanoe, 
news of fearful import concerning the conduct of Gen. Hull, reached 
Ohio and Kentucky. Our army had fallen back on Detroit, and 
rumors of the surrender of that place to the British, which did actu- 
ally take place, were floating on every breeze. Three regiments of 
militia were immediately raised in Kentucky. Before these troops 
had taken the field, it was well known that our army under Hull, with 
the whole Territory of Michigan, had been surrendered to the com- 
bined British and Indian forces, commanded by Brock and Tecum- 
seh. Our whole frontier in the Northwest lay bare and defenseless 
to the invasion, not only of the British army, but the more terrible 
invasion of a savage foe, hungry for plunder, and thirsting for blood, 



520 EAELY' INDIANA TRIALS. 

s 

led on by the most bold and accomplished warrior that the tribes of 

the red mau had ever produced. In this state of peril, the gallant 
army of Kentucky looked round for a leader equal totbe imminent 
and momentous crisis. There was Scott, the then Governor of Ken- 
tucky, who had fought through the Revolutionary war, and, under 
the eye of Washington, had risen to the rank of brigadier in the 
regular service. There, too, was the veteran Shelby, one of the heroes 
of King's Mountain, a name that shall wake up the tones of enthusi- 
asm in every American heart, while heroic courage is esteemed, or 
lofty integrity remains a virtue. There, too, was Clay, whose trumpet- 
tongue in this Hall was worth a thousand cannon in the field. These 
were convened in council. This, let us not forget, was about nine 
months after the battle of Tippecanoe. Whom, sir, I ask, did these 
men select to lead their own friends and fellow-citizens on to this glo- 
rious enterprise ? Their laws required that their militia should be 
commanded by one of their own citizens ; yet, passing by Scott and 
Shelby, and thousands of their own brave sons, this council called' 
Gen. Harrison, then Governor of Indiana — he who had commanded 
Kentuckians but nine months before at Tippecanoe — -he who, accord- 
ing to the gentleman from Michigan, had shown no tr^t but imbe- 
cility as an officer — he, against the laws of Kentucky, was, by such a 
council, asked to resign his station as Governor of Indiana, and take 
the rank and commission of Major General in the Kentucky militia, 
and lead on her armies, in that fearful hour, to redeem our national 
disgrace, and snatch from British dominion and savage butchery the 
very country now represented by the gentleman from Michigan. I 
have yet one other witness to call against the gentleman from 3Iichi- 
gan. Sir, if the last rest of the illustrious dead is disturbed in this 
unnatural war vipon a living soldier's honor, and a living patriot's 
fame, the fault is not mine. It will appear presently that the gentle- 
man from Michigan has — unwittingly, it may be — dishonored and 
insulted the dead, and charged the pure and venerated Madison with 
hypocrisy and falsehood. If Gen. Ilai-rison had been the weak, wicked, 
imbecile thing the gentleman from Michigan would now pretend, was 
not this known to Mr. Madison, then President of the United States, 
who gave the orders under which Gen. Harrison acted, and to whom 
the latter was responsible for his conduct? Surely no one can sup- 
pose that there were wanting those who, if they could have done so 
with truth, would have made known any conduct of Gen. Harrison, 
at the time referred to, which seemed in any degree worthy of repre- 
hension. With all these means of information, what was the testi- 
mony of Mr. Madison respecting the battle of Tippecanoe? I will 



THOMAS CORWIN. 521 

quote his own words from his message to Congress, about a mouth 
after the event. The message is dated IStli December, 1811, and 
reads as follows : 

" ' While it is deeply to be lamented that so many A'aluable lives 
have been lost in the action which took place on the 7tli ultimo. 
Congress will see with satisfaction the dauntless spirit of fortitude vic- 
toriously displayed by every description of troops engaged, as ivcll as 
the collected firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion 
requiring the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.' 

"Mr. Speaker, I have no pleasure in thus recapitulating and piling 
proof upon proof, to repel an insinuation which, I think it is now appa- 
rent to all, has been thrown out in the madness of party rage, 
without consideration, and founded only on a total perversion, or 
rather flat contradiction of every historical record having relation to 
the subject. 

" Something was said by the gentleman from Michigan about the 
encampment of Tippecanoe. If I understood him rightly, he con- 
demned it as injudicious, because it had a river on one side, and a 
morass on another. Now, Mr. Speaker, I shall give no opinion on 
the question thus stated ; but it just now occurs to me that this very 
subject, which I think in the military vocabulary is called castramenta- 
tion, admits of some serious inquiry bearing upon the criticism under 
consideration. In almost all scientific research, we find that what is 
now reduced to system, and arises to the dignity of science, was at 
first the product of some casualty, which, falling under the notice of 
some reflecting mind, gave rise to surprising I'esults. The accidental 
falling of an apple developed the great law of gravitation. I am sure 
I have somewhere seen it stated that Pyrrhus, the celebrated King of 
Epirus, who is allowed by all authority to have been the first' general 
of his time, first learned to fortify his camp by having a river in his 
rear and a morass on his flank ; and this was first suggested to him 
by seeing a wild boar, when hunted to desperation, back himself 
against a tree or rock, that he might fight his pursuers without danger 
of being assailed in his rear. Now, sir, if I comprehend the gentle- 
man from Michigan, he has against him on this point not only the 
celebrated king of Epirus but also the wild boar, who, it seems, was 
the tutor of Pyrrhus in the art of castramentation. Here, then, are 
two approved authorities, one of whom nature taught the art of war, 
as she kindly did us colonels, and the other that renowned hero of 
Epirus, who gave the Romans so much trouble in his time. These 
authorities are near two thousand years old, and, as far as I know, 
unquestioned, till the gentleman from Michigan attacked them yester- 



522 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

day. Here again, I ask who shall decide ? Pyrrhus and the boar on 
one side, and the gentleman from Michigan on the other. Sir, I 
decline jurisdiction of the question, and leave the two hundred and 
forty colonels of this House to settle the contest, ' noii )iostrum tantas 
comiwnere lites.' 

" Mr. Speaker, I feel it quite impossible to withdraw from this part 
of the debate without some comment on another assertion, or rather 
intimation, of the gentleman from Michigan, touching the conduct of 
Gen. Harrison at the battle of the Thames. All who have made 
themselves acquainted with the history of that event, know that the 
order in which the American army was to attack the combined force 
of British and Indians at the Thames was changed at the very 
moment when the onset was about to be made. This order of the 
General drew forth from Commodore Perry and others, who were in 
the staff of the army, and on the ground at the time, the highest 
encomiums. The idea of this change in the plan of attack, it is now 
intimated, was not original with Gen. Harrison, but was, as the gentle- 
man seems to intimate, suggested to him by another, who, it is said, 
was on the ground at the time. Who that other person is, or was, the 
gentleman has not said, but seemed to intimate he was now in the 
other end of the Capitol ; and thus we are led to suppose that the 
gentleman intends to say that Col. Johnson, the Vice President, is 
the gentleman alluded to. Sir, I regret very much that the gentleman 
should treat historical facts in this way. If there be any foundation 
for giving Col. Johnson the honor of having suggested to Gen. Har- 
rison a movement for which the latter has received great praise, why 
not speak out and say so? Why insinuate? Why hint or suppose 
on a subject susceptible of easy and positive proof? Does not the 
gentleman know that he is thus trifling with the character of a soldier, 
playing with reputation dearer than property or life to its possessor ? 
Sir, I wish to know if Col. Johnson, the Vice President of the United 
States, has, by any word or act of his, given countenance to this 
insinuation ? It would be well for all who speak at random on this 
subject, to remember that there are living witnesses yet who can testi- 
fy to the point in question. It may not be amiss to remind some that 
there is extant a journal of Colonel Wood, who afterward fell on the 
Niagara frontier. For the benefit of such, I, too, will state what can 
be proved in relation to the change made by Gen. Harrison in the 
order of attack at the Thames. 

" The position of the British and Indians had been reported to 
General Harrison by volunteer officers — brave men, it is true, but 
who, like many of us, were officers who had not seen a great deal of 



THOMAS CORWIN. o23 

hard fighting. On this report the order of attack first intended was 
founded ; but, before the troops were ordered on to the attack, Col. 
Wood was sent to examine and report the extent of front occupied by 
the British troops. Col. Wood's military eye detected at once what 
had escaped the unpractieed observation of the others — that is, that 
the British regulars were drawn up in open order ; and it was on his 
report that, at the moment, the change was made by Gen. Harrison in 
the order of the attack — a movement which, in the estimation of such 
men as Wood, and Perry, and Shelby, was enough of itself to entitle 
Gen. Harrison to the highest rank among the military men of his 
age. 

" Mr. Speaker, when I review the historical testimony touching this 
portion of Gen. Harrison's history, I confess my amazement at the 
Quixotic (I pray my friend from Michigan to pardon me), but I must 
call it the Quixotic exhibition which he has made of himself. Sir, 
the gentleman had no need to tell us he was a general of militia. His 
conduct in tiiis discussion is proof of that — strong even as his own 
word for the fact. He has shown all that reckless bravery which has 
always characterized our noble militia, but he has also, in this attack, 
shown that other quality of militia troops which so frequently impels 
them to rush hlindly forward, and often to their own destruction. I 
should like to hear many of the brave men around me speak of Gen. 
Harrison. Some there are now under my eye who carry British bul- 
lets in their bodies, received while fighting under the command of 
General Harrison. I should be glad to hear my whole-souled and 
generous-hearted friend from Kentucky (Major Butler), who agrees 
with the gentleman from Michigan in general politics, who has not 
merely heard of battle, but who has mingled in war in all its forms, 
and fought his way from the ranks up to the head of a battalion — I 
say I should be glad to hear his opinions of the matters asserted, 
hinted at, and insinuated by the gentleman from Michigan. 

" Why, I ask, is this attempt to falsify the common history of our 
country made now, and why is it made here? Is it vainly imagined 
that Congressional speeches are to contradict accredited, long-known 
historical facts ? Does the fierce madness of party indulge a concep- 
tion so wild ? 

" Sir, I repeat, that I feel only amazement at such an attempt. I 
could not sit still and witness it in silence. Much as I desired to 
speak to the House and the country on the question touching the 
Cumberland road, I should have left it to others, had I not been 
impelled to get the floor to bear my testimony against the gross 
injustice which I thought was about to be done to a citizen — an hon- 



524 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

ored, clierislied citizen of my own State. This House, Mr. Speaker, 
knows that I am not given to much babbling here. Yes, sir, you all 
know that, like Balaam's ass, I never speak here till I am kicked into 
it. I may claim credit, therefore, for sincerity, when I declare that a 
strong sense of justice alone could have called me into this debate. 
Let me now remind gentlemen who may be tempted into a similar 
course with my friend from Michigan, that all such efforts must recoil 
with destructive effect upon those who make them. Sir, it has been 
the fortune of Gen. Harrison to be identified with the civil and mili- 
tary history of this country for nearly half a century. What is to be 
gained, even to party, by perverting that history? Nothing. You 
may blot out a page of his biography here, and tear out a chapter of his 
history there ; nay, you may, in the blindness of party rage, rival the 
Vandal and the Turk, and burn up all your books, and what then 
have you effected? Nothing but an insane exhibition of impotent 
party violence. Gen. Harrison's history would still remain in the 
memory of his and your cotemporaries ; and coming events, not long- 
to be delayed, will show to the world that his history, in both legisla- 
tion and war, dwells not merely in the memories of his countrymen, 
but is enshrined in their gratitude and engraven upon their hearts. 



THE TIMES. 525 

THE TIMES. 

The sailor tliat was cast on a desolate island, laid himself down to 
sleep under the shade of the trees. When he awoke he missed one of 
his gloves, that had been taken off his hand while he slept; after 
looking for it for some time, he accidentally cast his eyes into the top 
of the trees, where he saw a number of large monkeys ; on the paw of 
one of them was the lost glove. After trying all the means he could 
think of to get it, in despair and rage he took the glove from his hand 
and dashed it on the ground, saying to the monkey, you have got one 
of my gloves, here is the other, take both, one is of no use to me. At 
that moment, the monkey seeing the sailor, took the glove from his 
paw, and with a like violent gesture threw it down ; the sailor took it 
up and left the grove. 

This simple story is introductory to the remark, that all intelligent 
beings are like the monkey, creatures of imitation. Nations imitate 
each other, from the greatest to the smallest. Men imitate each other, 
from the richest to the poorest. The royal eagle stoops from her 
mountain eyrie, and carries oflF the lamb of the farmer from the valley 
below, to feed her young eaglets ; the crow, that had built her nest in 
the trees on the side of the mountain, thought she could imitate the 
royal bird, and carry up to her nest another lamb. Down she sped and 
fixed her claws in the wool of the intended repast for her young, but 
lacking the power of the eagle to rise, she became an easy prey to the 
farmer ; so it is with nations and individuals, the weaker are the imita- 
tors of the stronger, and ninety-nine of every hundred of all the failures 
of nations, as well as individuals, grow out of the attempt to imitate, 
where the ability and power to succeed, are wanting. These remarks 
are preliminary to some thoughts on the times, that have been sug- 
gested by the great monetary pressure now upon u^. 

My views on this important subject are peculiarly my own, they are 
not intended to subserve party purposes, they rise higher and above 
party, and are given as the result of much reflection and long experi- 
ence, with a deep interest in the prosperity of our common country, 
and the perpetuity of our glorious Union. I am aware that my views 
may, and no doubt will, be the subject of criticism, this matters not; 
the object of my remarks will be accomplished if I shall be able to 
call the attention of others to the subject, whether in approval or 
otherwise. Let us then inquire, why is it that we are in the midst of 
a monetary crisis? That the banks have suspended with few excep- 
tions ; that the large mercantile houses in the importing cities, lie 
prostrate ; that many of the manufacturing establishments of the 



526 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

United States are silenced, and the workmen tlirown out of employ ; 
that the arm of industry has been paralyzed ; that money has become 
too scarce to answer the pui'poses of trade and commerce ; that the 
precious metals have been driven to the strong boxes to be kept under 
lock and key, to be drawn forth only at great sacrifices ; that the Gov- 
ernment is enabled to fill her treasury to plethora in these times of 
monetary embarrassment and distress among the people ? Are we 
involved in a foreign war, to demand and exhaust our means ? Is any 
destroying epidemic sweeping over the land ? Does the earth refuse 
to yield her reward to the hands of industry ? Have the mines and 
gold-bearing quartz of California, been exhausted ? Have we received 
less of the precious metals within the last ten years, than for any like 
term at any time before ? Is there less money, including the mixed 
currency, in the United States at this time, than at any former period? 
Does our flag that floats over our commerce, frequent fewer oceans and 
seas than formerly ? Are embargoes laid on our foreign commerce by 
foreign nations ? Are our manufocturers, artizans, mechanics, labor- 
ers, less skillful, less industrious than formerly ? Is our population 
decreasing ? Is our territory being circumscribed ? Do we not extend 
from ocean to ocean ? Does not the flag of a united people wave over 
us? Is there a nation under heaven whose onward course points to 
so high a destiny, if we remain true to ourselves and true to our 
national flag? We now stand among the grejit and powerful nations 
of the earth, and while we remain united and stand together as breth- 
ren, our star in the galaxy of nations must become still more brilliant, 
until it shall shine as a sun in the national firmament. If these 
things be true, the question still arises ; why our present embai-rassed 
position ? It is perfectly clear that it does not grow out of any radical 
defect in the form of our Government, or any want of all the elements 
of prosperity on the part of the people; where then lies the cause? 
This is the great, the important question. 

A few thoughts upon these questions. What is the object of gov- 
ernment? I answer, to protect the people in all their rights of life, 
liberty, property, character, and the pursuit of happiness ; and any 
government that neglects or refuses to do this, comes short of the 
purposes of its creation. Every government must raise the means of 
its support from the governed, by one of the means known to national 
financiers, by whatever name they may be called. Our Government 
early chose the system of tariff" duties on foreign imports, as the least 
objectionable. These duties are levies under our present tariff" laws, 
upon a horizontal scale, ad valorem upon all classes of imports, exclu- 
ding a large schedule of free articles from their operation. 



THE TIMES. 527 

No question since the organization of our Government as connected 
with its civil i^olicy, has given rise to so much feeling between the 
leading politicians, as the adjustment of the tariff. At one time, the 
Union itself seemed to he on.the point of dissolution ; Mr. Calhoun 
and his Southern associates, insisting, that in consequence of the tariff 
of 1828, the State of South Carolina had the right to secede from the 
Union, peaceably if she could, forciby in any event. Gen. Jackson 
by his proclamation, followed by the force bill, denied the nullifica- 
tion, seceding doctrines of Mr. Calhoun, and declared that any overt 
attempt to carry out such principles, would be treason ; a levying war 
against the United States, and would meet the whole power of the 
Government to put it down. No overt act was committed, the Com- 
promise Tariff Act was passed, and South Carolina professed to be sat- 
isfied. The tariff, of 1828, for which I voted, with Mr. Buchanan and 
Silas Wright, was considered by the South a high tariff, covering the 
protective principle, and she cried repeal from the moment of its 
passage. Her statesmen in both Houses denied the power of the 
Government to go beyond the levying of duties sufficient to produce 
the necessary revenue, even incidentally, where protection was one of 
the objects of the levy. They insisted that the tariff of 1828 would 
produce too much revenue, and therefore the duties must be reduced. 
We denied the principle and the effect, at the time ; we insisted that 
the reduction of duties on the ad valorem scale, would increase, and 
not reduce the revenue ; that the true principle was to let in free of 
duty, all articles of necessary consumption, that did not come into 
competition with those produced or manufactured in the United States, 
and maintain the Government from duties imposed on foreign articles 
that did come into competition with our industry, discriminating 
against foreign luxuries that were not necessaries, and might well be 
taxed high to the consumer. The effect of the tariff of 1828 was to 
stimulate and reassure American industry, as was anticipated at the 
time, and at the same time to supply the Treasury with sufficient rev- 
enue. The Compromise Act, brought about by the hostile aspect of 
South Carolina, and yielded to by Mr. Clay and his friends, it was 
believed by Mr. Calhoun would reduce the tariff of duties, and place 
it up on the horizontal platform, designed to withdraw all discrimina- 
tion in favor of our own manufactures, and intended merely to raise 
sufficient revenue for the use of the Government. 

The act of 18-12, under which the Government and people prospered 
in a high degree, laid fair discriminating duties, for the revenue pur- 
poses of the Treasury without creating much surplus. But here again 
the cry was raised in the South, and repeated by some in the North, 



528 EAELY INDIAjN'A TRIALS. 

East and West, that this tariff was too high for revenue purposes; 
that it raised more money than was required by the Treasury, and 
locked up the surplus from the people. The act was repealed, 
and that of 1846 passed, reducing the ad valorem .standard on the 
scale of many articles of import. This it was predicted would reduce 
the revenue. But here again, the principle seemed to work adversely, 
the low tariff increased the revenue largely, the country was inundated 
with foreign goods, to be paid for with bills on our shipments of pro- 
duce, or in specie. The revenue Treasury, was soon filled to plethora, 
with the duties, taken and held from circulation, over and above its 
immediate wants. The gold of California became insufficient to sup- 
ply the vacuum created by the export to pay our European indebted- 
ness. The steamer from San Francisco, loaded with millions of the 
precious treasure, but arrived in time for the shipment in the next 
European steamer, and at the end of the month, we were minus in the 
gold account: our banks drawing in their accommodations, and sus- 
pending specie payments. How could it be otherwise? In 1856, our 
exports of specie was $45,745,485, and our imports only 64,207,682 ; 
against us $41,537,80.3. Our wholesale merchants suspending, our 
retailers falling like autumn leaves, our manufiicturers closing their 
doors and discharging their laborers without the means of support of 
their families ; our workshops transferred to England by our policy, 
leaving the workmen here. 

It has been said that the effect of protecting our industry, is to raise 
the price of the manufactured article to the consumer. To this, I say 
that even if it were so, he could afford to give more, if he could feed 
the workmen out of his produce, and keep the money he gave for it. 
at home for circulation ; but the great purpose is. to give a permanent 
stability to our manufacturers, that can not be effected by the contin- 
ual changes in the policy of other nations, leaving the home competi- 
tion with the foreign duty added, to bi'ing the price to the lowest point 
at which the article can be afforded, to the consumer. 

I fully concur with those who contend, that there should be no more 
revenue raised than is needed, after the National Debt is paid, for an 
economical administration of the Government; but I contend that the 
present tariff policy is destructive of the interest of the Government 
and the people, and is one of the main causes of the present monetary 
embarrassment. It raises a large amount of surplus; this surplus is 
gold and silver, it is taken from circulation, depriving the people of its 
use ; it largely increases the dutiable importations, to drain the specie 
from the country in their payment, thus combining the two elements 
of depletion of the circulating medium, enough in itself to create all 



THE TIMES. 529 

the embarrassments vre are laboring under. This should be corrected 
by Congress, and must be before we can expect permanent relief. Our 
embarrassments are attributed by some to our railroad indebtedness in 
Europe. I, do not see it in that light, I take a strong case for illus- 
tration. Suppose a railroad in America built entirely with capital 
borrowed in England, for which bonds were given drawing seven per 
cent interest ; the road built and running, whose road in fact is it? It 
belongs to the English bond-holder, for profit and loss. If he gets 
his interest, it is only upon his investment ; if the road is kept in 
operation, the real benefit results to our citizens ; if we pay ftires for 
the use of the road, it is but the interest on the capital invested ; if 
we are paying the foreigners the interest on their bonds, we have the 
use of their capital. 

But, is the idea that we hear in the mouths of the multitude, true, 
that there have been millions of dollars sunk in railroads? How 
sunk ? Was not the money expended and put into circulation in the 
construction of the road? was the money destroj'ed? was it sunk? 
Suppose the road worthless, and no consideration wha.tever for the 
money it cost, does that sink the money? or does it merely fall upon 
and sink the capital of the builders ? The money changes hands, but 
it is not sunk. Thousands both in Europe and America, of their best 
men have been ruined by their connection with railroad enterprises; 
.but there is just as much money to day, as if no railroad had ever been 
built. I have not the time or space, to go into the railroad policy of 
the United States, although from a temporary connection with a branch 
of the system, I have looked somewhat into it. It has become like 
the arteries and veins in the human body, essentially identified with 
the prosperity of the people. It must be maintained, or a universal 
paralysis will follow in all the industrial departments of the nation. 
From a mere luxury, our railroads have become a necessary of life. 
Is it not strange then, that they should hang like an incubus upon the 
stockholders ; they should support themselves, or rather the country, 
for whose use they are built should support them, by the payment of 
such freights and fares, as shall be suflScient for that purpose after the 
expenses of operating the roads shall be reduced to the most economi- 
cal standard. There is scarcely a railroad in the United States, that 
does not cost double for ordinary expenses, what it ought to. The 
salary of the officers in many instances, is highly disproportioned to 
the duties. I noticed some time ago, that Mr. Moran, the president 
of the New York and Erie Road, receives the same salary as the Presi- 
dent of the United States ; and I noticed soon after, that the stock of 
the road depreciated daily, a natural consequence. 
34 



530 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

The immense business transacted in the commercial relations of the 
people of the United States, render it impossible to barter and 
exchange one article for another, as was done in the primitive ages of 
the world, and as is still done in the interior of Asia and Africa. We 
require a medium of exchange and circulation, by which the value of 
all articles of commerce and trade can be fixed, as well as the price 
of labor. The question as to what that medium shall be, has occupied 
the minds of many of our most talented and patriotic statesmen. Mr. 
Benton and others of his school, insist that the only medium should 
be coin — gold and silver. They refer ixs to the Constitution, that 
makes coin alone a lawful tender. We admit that fact, but say, that 
in this age of the commercial world, to confine the circulation to gold 
and silver would be impossible, and if possible, not desirable. The 
effect would be to bring down the value of both real and personal 
property to a mere tithe of what it is now, and bring ruin upon all 
the indebted property-holders in the land. I introduce the idea of an 
exclusive metallic currency, not for the purpose of discussing it, but 
to show that we' have distinguished hard-money men among us. The 
United States, with the other commercial nations of the world, have 
passed it by, as an obsolete idea, and with one accord have adopted 
the mixed currency, composed of coin, and paper, called bank notes. 
England has her National Bank, so has France, and other European 
nations. We once had a Bank of the United States, that acted as 
the fiscal agent of the Glovernment, in the collecting, transmitting, 
and disbursing of the revenues. That Bank furnished a paper medi- 
um of uniform specie value, in every part of the United States. Its 
charter expired, it closed its existence, and liquidated its affairs, 
redeeming every dollar of its issues, and paying every cent of its 
deposits without the loss of a dollar to any body. I was, at the time 
its charter expired, and still am of the opinion, that we shall never 
have a better paper circulation than it afforded. While we maintain 
a paper currency, it is perhaps the most difficult problem ever solved, 
as to how that currency shall be furnished, how regulated. It admits 
of no question, that the effect of a redundant circulation is to inflate 
prices, create speculation, increase importations, take up the public 
lands to be held against actual settlers, inflate individuals. On the 
other hand, a large withdrawal of circulation must bring with it con- 
sequences the reverse of those I have named. Still the question 
arises, what is a redundant currency in a country like ours, with its 
ten thousand times ten thousand ramified interests, requiring capital ? 
Our progress may be too rapid for permanent results, but who shall 
Btay the energy of our people ? or who shall say to the active mind. 



THE TIMES. 531 

of even the Western pioneer, thus far shalt thou go, and no further ? 
He takes his faithful rifle, passes the Rocky Mountains, descends the 
plain to the Pacific Ocean, sees its waves lashing the shore, and 
inquires for a steamer to carry him over to the ocean islands. 

How much currency do we want ? This depends again upon the 
state of public confidence in the institutions that furnish it. With 
confidence, to give it motion, much less will answer all our purposes : 
confidence withdrawn, and money will be scarce, and times hard, no 
matter what amount of money there may be in the country. The 
recent developments have shown most conclusively, to my mind, that 
the banking institutions of the United States require radical and 
speedy reform. If they are to maintain their chartered privileges, 
giving them rights over the citizens, the public, and their customers, 
they should be amply secured. No bank should be authorized to issue 
paper, or receive deposits, without giving to the public undoubted 
security. All banking operations should be based upon specie, and 
specie securities. It should be made a penitentiary offense for a bank 
to shut down upon its deposits. The public know nothing as to its 
affairs behind the counter, and it is nothing less than obtaining money 
by false pretenses for the officers of a bank to receive deposits in cash 
without Jmoioing that they would be able to repay them on demand, 
and without providing the means to do so. My very heart has bled, 
when I have seen the poor laborer, the widow, and the orphan, stand- 
ing at the locked door of a suspended bank, begging for a few shil- 
lings of their deposits, to get a little provision in market, while the 
well-dressed banker was living in style upon their money, regardless 
of their cries for justice. This the public call bank suspension. I 
call it bank robbery. 

But we must have banks. If so, let us know what kind of banks 
we have, and when we have them, let us not destroy them by distrust 
and want of confidence in them. No bank in America can stand a 
run of bill-holders and depositors, requiring specie, a single day ; and 
why not? Because no bank can afford to keep in its vaults an 
amount of specie equal to its issues and deposits. It is doubted 
whether a bank should be permitted to discount or trade on its depos- 
its by many. If not, then it could not pay interest on its deposits. 
I would leave that to the bank officers, at their peril, if they shut 
down or closed their doors against depositors. 

But the leading banks have suspended specie payments. How could 
it be otherwise ? They could only exist as specie-paying institutions 
so long as they retained the confidence of their bill-holders, deposi- 
tors and creditors. The moment that confidence was withdrawn, and 



532 EARLY IXDIAXA TEIALS. 

the run made uj^on them, they could only pay out what specie they 
had, and close their doors. Did not the creditors know that when 
they trusted and run upon them ? And why complain now, if they 
have acted honestly with their assets. The defect is not in the officers, 
but in the system, which is rotten to the core, and must be reformed, 
if we are to look to them for our paper circulation. I would not 
destroy them, but I would reform them, so as to give confidence in 
their circulation, without which they can not long continue to exist. 

There is little real poverty in the rural districts of the United 
States. The large importing cities contain ninety-nine of every hun- 
dred of the poor and distressed. It is there that drunkenness, licen- 
tiousness, poverty, and crime stalk abroad by day and by night. This 
is owing greatly to the fact, that the foreign emigration from all parts 
of the world land at our seaports. The question has frequently arisen, 
whether we ought not to regulate this emigration, so as to reject 
foreign paupers and send them back to their own country. Thous- 
ands have been sent here to get rid of them in Europe, and the 
moment they are landed, they become a charge upon those cities. 
We can not say that foreigners shall not be received into our country. 
We open our arms and bid them welcome. Many see danger in this. 
I confess I do not. I would not check foreign emigration of the 
right kind, but I would direct it to useful purposes. The large por- 
tion of the emigrants that land at our seaports are laborers, the very 
kind of men that are needed to open and cultivate our Western lands 
that lie idle, waiting to be improved. These emigrants, instead of 
being permitted to settle down in the seaports, adding to the mass of 
idle vagrancy there, should be taken charge of by the Emigrant 
Societies, and transported into the great Western field of labor and 
food. This would be true philanthropy to the emigrant, and the true 
policy of the large cities. 

I have thus briefly given my views of the true policy of the Gov- 
ernment, and of the currency question. A few remarks upon the 
causes of distress among the people associated, and in their individual 
characters. I have already said, that man is a creature of imitation. 
To that fact, and to the disregard of the unpopular but true saying, that 
men should live within their means, I attribute the present embar- 
rassment. We have, in this country, millionaires, and many of smaller 
estates, who are able to live within their means, and yet expend 
their hundred thousand dollars in a splendid mansion, furnish it in 
the most costly style, and keep up an establishment at a yearly 
expense of many thousands, and yet live upon their income. In one 
respect these come within the rule • but do they in fact ? Yes, if they 



THE TIMES. 533 

live alone, outside of society, upon a solitary island, where their 
influence would neither be seen or felt. But they are surrounded by 
imitators, who can not live in their costly style without going above 
their means ; they are creatures of imitation — like the poor crow, they 
see the eagle stoop from his eyrie and raise the struggling lamb to the 
young eaglets on the mountain cliff. They must have a fine house 
and a splendid establishment alongside of the wealthy nabob. They 
imitate closely, with a few extras to talk abovit. They enjoy it as 
long as Phaeton did his ride in the chariot of the sun ; and like him 
they are dashed to earth again for the wondering crowd to look upon. 
He inflated his balloon with the gas of self-consequence — he thought 
it raised him majestically; but the bubble burst, and what sane man 
supposed it would not ? His fate is that of the thousands who liave, 
within the last few months, l\illen from their supposed wealth to pov- 
erty. They have been the imitators who have lived above their 
means. Could tl^ey have fallen, like the venturous youth from the 
chariot of the sun upon the banks of the river Po, doing no other 
injury but to destroy themselves, there would be little cause for tears. 
But unfortunately the most of them have dragged down with them, 
many honest men who had given them their confidence. 

It may be assumed that ninety-nine out of every hundred of all the 
failures in the United States, have occurred by living on imaginary, 
and not real lueans ; or, as they would say in Wall street, " foncy 
means." The man who lives upon his means, and creates no debts 
beyond, can not break, unless he intrusts his means to dishonest 
hands. This seems plain to a common understanding ; and yet, how 
hard it is to live up to this golden rule. There are ten thousand 
seductions to draw off the best fortified minds. Speculation stands 
before him, with credit in her hands, offering immense gains. Not 
more seductive was the serpent in the garden, when offering the apple 
to mother Eve. The ordinary process of industry is too slow to make 
a fortune. Like the bee that went from the hive to gather honey, he 
passes by the opening flowers, from which he had been accustomed by 
industry to load himself for the hive, and falls a victim to the vial of 
honey, made without his labor, suspended from the branch of the 
tree. Man was destined to get his living by the sweat of his brow; 
but he has sought out many inventions to pervert the text and ii:ake 
it mean, the sweat of the brow of others. How small a portion of 
the expenses that occur in the affairs of men, in this age, can be set 
down to the account for actual necessaries. How few would fail, if 
they would use industry, practice economy, and only ex23end their 
means in the necessaries of life. 



534 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 



STEPHEN A, DOUGLASS. 

There is, perhaps, no citizen of tlie United States, at this day, who 
holds a more prominent position in the public mind, than the subject 
of this sketch. Judge Douglass, for many years before his elevation 
to Congress, held high ofl&ces in the State of Illinois — representative 
and judicial. I had no personal acquaintance with him until after 
he had served in the House, and had taken his seat in the Senate of 
the United States. It was in this exalted body of great men, that his 
extraordinary powers of mind w^ere fully developed. It is far from 
my object to attempt to analyze his political course, all that is the 
work of political writers ; my purpose is to present Judge Douglass as 
I saw and heard him in the Senate of the United States. He is con- 
siderably below the common bight of men, thick set, large expanding 
chest, remarkably large head, square capacious forehead, dark hair 
and eyes, wide mouth, prominent features, loud full voice. As a 
speaker he is forcible, strong, clear, rapid, impressive ; as he progresses 
he throws his whole soul into the subject, and forgets himself. His 
gestures are such only as are produced by his subject, and feelings 
at the time. There is nothing artificial about him. I met him at 
Terre Haute, after he had made his. speaking visits to Southern Illi- 
nois ; he was quite exhausted, both in body and voice ; his bronchial 
organs were much affected, so much so as to compel him to leave his 
appointments. I saw him afterward at Washington city much im- 
proved. Judge Douglass is one of the strongest intellects of the 
nation, and possesses great energy of chai-acter. Now only in the 
meridian of life. I give the readers, to show his style, an extract 
from his speech on the Ocean Telegraph : 

" I do not regard this as a war-measure, in any sense of the word. 
It is essentially a peace-measure — a commercial measure, so far as its 
advantages are concerned ; and I am disposed to look upon it purely 
in that light. I agree with the Senator from Virginia, that our mer- 
chants, and our commerce, will derive the. same advantages from this 
telegraph if the United States Government does not contribute, as if it 
does contribute. The Company will follow their own interest, undoubt- 
edly, in the management of the work, and those interests will require 
them to do as much business as possible, receive every customer that 
comes, and get as much money out of each customer as they can 
obtain, at the rates chai-ged. I have, therefore, no apprehension that 
our commerce will not be on an equal footing with English commerce 
when this line shall be made, no matter which government patronizes 



STEPHEX A. DOUGLASS. 535 

it; or wlietlier either patronizes it or not. I believe it will be of vast 
advantage to the commerce of both countries. I believe its tendency 
will be to cultivate better feelings between the two countries. I be- 
lieve the closer it brings us together, the more it will obliterate those 
prejudices which certainly do exist to a considerable extent between 
the two nations. Our policy is essentially a policy of peace. We 
want peace with the whole world, above all other considerations. 
There never has been a time in the history of the Republic, when 
peace was more essential to our prosperity, to our advancement, and 
our progress, than it is now. We have made great progress in time 
of peace — an almost inconceivable progress since the last war with 
Great Britain. Twenty-five years more of peace will put us so far in 
advance of any other nation on earth, that even the Senator from 
Kentucky will not have such a dread of the power of Great Britain 
as he seems to have to-day. Sir, I do not think his apprehensions 
are well founded, even now. There is a wide difierence between the 
power of this nation to-day, and what it was during the war of 1812. 
The additions that have been made to our population, the additional 
States that have been admitted into this Union, now furnish more of 
the elements needed in a war with Great Britain, than the whole 
nation possessed at the time of the last war. I trust we are never to 
have another war with Great Britain ; yet I would not surrender any 
great material interest of ours, nor would I tarnish the American 
honor to avoid a war. If England forces it upon us, let it come ; but 
I would do nothing to encourage it. I would not court it; not 
because I believe that at this day we could not meet her in a fair field. 
I firmly believe that if we should have a war with Great Britain, she 
would not come out of it, at the end of three years, with one foot 
of British soil on the Amei'ican continent. New England alone could 
drive every British soldier from the whole coast, and take possession 
of the colonies that are connected with this end of the wire. New 
England would take the job to capture Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick, including Halifax, their great fortress. While that was being 
done, the West could dispose of the rest of the Canadas. 

" Although this is our condition, I would not act aggressively 
toward England. I would do nothing to encourage war merely 
because we have advantages on this continent, and can drive her oif it 
whenever we please ; but I would consider these facts in connection 
with the objections made to this proposition, that this end of the wire 
will be in the British territory. As I said yesterday, that objection 
fails for the reason that, in time of war, this end of the wire would 
not be in British territory ; and it is no objection that it is in British 



536 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

territory in time of peace. Our commuuication would be as perfect 
in time of peace with it in British territory as under the American 
flag; and I hold that, in time of war, it would be in our possession, 
and not in hers. If we can look fairly and reasonably at the relative 
powers of the two countries when fighting upon this continent, I think 
we must come to this conclusion. I do not pretend to say that we 
send troops to England to fight her at home, or establish an European 
colony, but I do say that she can not send troops three thousand miles 
across the ocean, and fight us at home oa an equality. It is said that 
our ports are exposed, and that British ships could come in and batter 
down our cities. Sir, I do not know of any English seaport as well 
fortified as New York. Liverpool is not half as well fortified as New 
York. London itself is not as secure from an invasion as New York ; 
but we have allowed ourselves to be frightened out of our wits by 
cries about the es|)osed condition of our cities. If you enter the 
British ports you will find them more exposed than our own. Hence 
these threatenings of British power have no terrors for me. I desire 
to examine this question as a peace measure, as a commercial measure, 
casting out of view its efi'ect ou either country in time of war, for the 
reason that neither can use it in time of war. If England had pos- 
session of both ends of it, we could cut the wire. What difficulty 
would there be in drawing up the wire on the banks of Newfoundland, 
and cutting it? It will run for hundreds of miles over the shallow 
banks of Newfoundland, where any anchor can reach it ; then it can 
be reached as you approach the shallow bank toward Ireland. Inas- 
much as it is to be exposed, not covered, at the bottom of the sea, it 
can be reached any where where a cable is long enough to reach it. It 
is a small wire, about the size of my finger. The Senator from New 
Y'ork has a specimen of it in his hand. It can be hauled up with 
perfect ease by any ship. Hence in time of war its power and its 
terrors would cease in a moment, if it was found to be injurious to 
either party. I shall not follow my friend from Ohio (Mr. Pugh), 
through his descriptions of the aggressive policy of Great Britain, in 
surrounding us wherever she can get an opportunity of planting her 
flag. On former occasions I have often referred to that line of policy 
on the part of Great Britain. I have never approved that policy of 
hers. I have never been willing to yield to it where we had the 
power of resisting it consistently with our own rights and dignity ; 
but, sir, I do not know what British power, in Central America, or in 
the Bahamas, or at Bermuda, or at Halifiix, or any other place on the 
continent, or the islands of the sea, has to do with this telegraphic 
communication with Europe ; nor do I know what British aggression 



STEPHEN A. DOUGLASS. 537 

in the Indies lias to do with the establishment of this telegraphic 
wire. We all know the history of British aggression in India. We 
know that it forms a series of aggressions unequaled by any other 
nation on the fiice of the globe. It is proper to refer to those aggres- 
sions in order to shame England when she taunts us with aggressive 
policy. It is legitimate in that line of debate, or as an off-set to her 
taunts against Russia, attributing to that power an aggressive policy. 
I have no objection to England's aggressive policy in Asia, if she 
chooses to pursue it. I have no objection to Russia's aggressive policy 
in that region, if she chooses to pursue it. I care not how soon Eng- 
land and Russia get in collision in their mutual aggressive policy in 
Asia, if they are fools enough to carry on that kind of war. If they 
will confine their aggressions to the other side of the water, and let us 
alone, I am willing to let them fight, and let us feed both parties 
while the fighting is being done. I have an objection to any European 
power pursuing an aggressive policy on this continent ; but I do not 
know what these questions have to do with the bill now under con- 
sideration. But American citizens have commenced this enterprise. 
The honor and the glory of the achievement, if successful, will be 
due to American genius and American daring. Why should the 
American Grovernment be so penurious — I do not know that that is 
the proper word, for it costs nothing ; why should we be actuated by so 
illiberal a spirit as to refuse the use of one of our steamships to con- 
vey the wire, when it does not cost one farthing to the Treasury of 
the United States ? We did furnish more, infinitely more than that, 
to help to take the soundings across this very line for the benefit of 
commerce. We thought it Avas a matter of honor and credit to this 
Government to be engaged in the great scientific work of determining 
the depth of the ocean, and the tracks of vessels across it, in order to 
save life and es2)edite the transportation of persons and property. 



538 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



• LEWIS CASS. 

If I should say that no man now alive in the United States has 
filled so many prominent positions as the distinguished subject of this 
sketch, I should be only saying what is universally known, and if I 
should add that no other man living has discharged the duties of so 
many high offices, with greater credit to himself and satisfaction to 
the public, I should give my own opinion, after looking over his long 
and useful life. In saying this I entirely eschew politics. I speak as 
an American citizen, of an American citizen, whose sands have nearly 
run out, and whose character is soon to be the only legacy he can leave 
his country. I have often thought how closely identified have been 
the political fortunes of the two great compeers, Henry Clay and 
Lewis Cass. Both were the cherished objects of their political friends, 
both had rendered eminent services to their common country ; both 
acknowledged patriots ; both eminently qualified for the first office in 
the gift of the American people ; both ambitious to obtain it ; both 
candidates ; both defeated ; both go down to their graves followed by 
the strongest sympathies of the country. It is no purpose of mine to 
attempt the biography of Gen. Cass. That will be written whea he 
shall be taken from us. Nor is it for me to review his many public 
speeches. As a speaker. Gen. Cass was plain, clear, calm ; his style 
was fine, and his gestures easy. He made no pretense to what is 
called eloquence, and yet he was at times truly eloquent. In person 
he was above the common bight, strong built, large chest, long face, 
high broad forehead, dark hair, heavy eye, projecting chin, prominent 
features, solemn countenance. As entirely suited to his age and char- 
acter, I have selected, as a specimen of his style, his beautiful 
remarks upon the decease of John M. Clayton, his distinguished co- 
Senator, from Delaware : 

" Mr. President : — Once more are our duties to the living suspen- 
ded by the last sad tribute of regard to the memory of the dead. 
Another of our associates has passed from the scene of his labors to 
that dread responsibility which equally awaits the representative and 
the constituent, the ruler and the ruled. All human distinctions are 
leveled before the destroyer, and in the narrow house, to which we 
are hastening, the mighty and the lowly lie side by side together. 
There our departed friend has preceded us. When we separated but 
a few days since, he was a bright and shining light among his coun- 
trymen. Returning to resume our functions, we find that light extin- 
guished in the darkness of the tomb. Well may we exclaim with 
the psalmist, ' Man's days are like a shadow that passeth away.' 



LEWIS CASS. 539 

" His character and services have been portrayed with great 2">ower 
and fidelity by the Senators who have preceded me, one of them his 
respected colleague, and the other his personal and political friend, 
both entitled by long acquaintance to speak as they have spoken of 
him, and their words of eloquence have found a responsive feeling in 
the hearts of their auditors. I can not lay claim to the same rela- 
tion, but I knew him during many years, and his high qualities have 
left their impress upon my mind ; and I rise to add my feeble testi- 
monial of regret that he has been taken from among us. 

" The deceased Senator from Delaware was long identified with the 
political history of the country. Sent here by the confidence of his 
native State thirty years ago, he brought with him eminent qualifica- 
tions for the position, and which led to the high distinction he 
acquired. To a vigorous and powerful intellect, improved by early 
training, he added various and extensive acquirements — the fruit of 
ripe study and acute observation. And he possessed a profound 
knowledge — rare indeed — of the principles of our Constitution, and 
of those great questions connected with our peculiar political institu- 
tions, which so often present themselves for solution, and sometimes 
under circumstances of perilous agitation. He was a prompt and able 
debater as we all know, and touched no subject upon which he did 
not leave marks of thorough investigation. In whatever situation he 
was placed, he met the public expectation by the ability he displayed, 
and by his devotion to the honor and interests of his country. 

" In looking back upon our communication with this lamented states- 
man, every member of the body will bear testimony to the kindness of 
his feelings, and to the comity and courtesy which marked his social 
intercourse. He was a happy example of that union of decision of opin- 
ion and firmness of purpose in public life, with the amenity of dispo- 
sition which constitutes one of the great charms of private life — a 
union the more commendable, as it is rarely found in the exciting 
scenes of political controversy. His was a most genial nature, and 
we can not recall him without recalling this trait of his character. 

" It is a source of consolation to all his friends, that when the last 
change came it found him prepared to meet it. He entered the dark 
valley of the shadow of death with a firm conviction of the truth of 
the mission of Jesus Christ, and with an unshaken reliance upon the 
mercy of the Savior. He added another to the long list of eminent 
men who have examined the evidences of revealed religion, and who 
have found it the will and the word of God ; and he died in the tri- 
umphant hope of a blessed immortality, which the Gospel holds out 
to every true and humble believer." 



540 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 



JAMES K. POLK. 

It was my good fortune to serve in the twentieth Congress, in the 
House of Representatives, with the distinguished subject of this 
sketch, both being from the great West and not far from the same age. 
We soon became intimate, and continued so until his decease, after he 
had retired from the Presidency. It is no part of my purpose, to 
enter into the questions in relation to his nomination over Mr. Van 
Buren and Gen. Cass. That matter is now well understood, and stands 
about in this wise : Gen. Cass, knowing that Mr. Van Buren could 
get a majority of all the votes of the convention, through his friends, 
sprung the two-thirds rule upon the convention, rendering the nomi- 
nation of both Mr. Van Buren and himself out of the question. Mr. 
Van Buren received a majority of the whole number, but not two- 
thirds. Mr. Polk in the end, received the two-thirds necessary to a 
choice ; was nominated by the friends of the prominent candidates, as 
their second choice ; and was finall}^ elected over Henry Clay in a most 
heated contest. 

It is not for me at this day, to fight that battle over again. I was 
in the heat of the contest, as the warm and devoted friend of Henry 
Clay. I thought he ought to have been elected. The majority of the 
people, however, said otherwise, and it became the duty of the minor- 
ity, to submit to the will of the majority, which we did with the best 
possible grace. In this, oiir people are unlike all others in the world, 
here it is, and here alone, that the power of the ballot-box is felt and 
appreciated. The night before a Presidential election, you hear the 
drums beating, the fife playing, the artillery roaring ; you see the rock- 
ets flying, the transparencies and torch-light processions moving, the 
orators on every stand addressing the people, the crowds intensely 
excited. 

A stranger to our Grovernment looking on, would naturally suppose, 
that it was the last night we were to enjoy our Union ; that the excited 
parties would never be reconciled to the success of their opponents, 
but would rally under their leaders, and contest their powers at the 
point of the sword. But see the sequel ; morning comes, the polls are 
opened, the judges and inspectors take their seats, ready to receive 
the votes of the people. Now look at the scene ! the same men that 
marched the night before under the highest state of partisan excite- 
ment, now mingle in one mass, all eyes and thoughts directed to the 
ballot-box, the elective franchise under our Constitution and laws, is 
now to be exercised, and the ballot-box is to become the deposit of the 
power of the people, until the next Presidential election. The vote 



JAMES K. POLK. 541 

is cast, and the freeman returns to his home, to pursue his ordinary 
business, until he shall be called upon to exercise again his high pre- 
rogative of depositing again in the ballot-bos, his vote for the man of 
his choice. 

The day after the election, the same stranger would look at the 
change that had taken place, with astonishment and wonder, as to what 
all that excitement that he had witnessed the night before the election 
was about. Such was the result of the great contest between Henry 
Clay and James K. Polk ; there never was a more exciting election : 
and yet the calm immediately succeeded. The majesty of the Consti- 
tution and laws, rose above the waves of party, and our good ship 
moved on with the new pilot at the helm in her accustomed course. 
Thus may it ever be, that our people may appreciate the ballot-box, 
and be willing to deposit there for the time being, their political power, 
holding their Representatives to a just accountability, and looking to 
the next election for redress. 

It is no part of my object in this sketch, to speak of the adminis- 
tration of James K. Polk, as President of the United States — all 
that belongs to the historian. I present him to the reader as T saw 
him in that Congress of distinguished men, of whom I have spoken, 
and whose names I have recoi'ded in these sketches. The name of 
James K. Polk, of Tennessee, there appears. He was one of the 
active, ardent, zealous spirits of that Congress, about the medium 
hight, well built, good head, high forehead, dark hair and eyes, wide 
mouth, projecting chin, full chest. As a speaker, he was loud, 
emphatic, clear, strong, impulsive ; he threw his whole soul into the 
subject. If he was ever eloquent, it was not so intended ; it was the 
eloquence of the subject and not of the speaker, as he seemed to for- 
get himself while pursuing the facts before him. I thought him one 
among the strong men of that Congress, whicli I consider at this day 
a very high compliment. 



542 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

The distinguished subject of this sketch, having discharged the 
duties of the highest office in the world, for four years — his admin- 
istrative powers and qualifications are so distinctly before the Ameri- 
can people that I do not propose to speak of them now. I may 
simply say, that Franklin Pierce was, at the time of his nomination, 
the first choice of neither branch or division of the Democratic party, 
but was the fortunate child of the two-thirds rule, that had, on a 
former occasion, nominated James K. Polk over Martin Van Bureu. 
The election of Gen. Pierce over Gen. Scott was a decided party tri- 
umph, after a most animated contest. I had the pleasure of a close 
and intimate acquaintance with Gen. Pierce, during the time he repre- 
sented New Hampshire in the Senate. It is in that character I wish 
to speak of him. We were qualified as Senators at the same moment. 
I was struck at the time with his youthful appearance. He was the 
youngest Senator in the body, about five feet ten in hight, spare, 
straight, large head, broad high forehead, dark hair and eyes, promi«- 
nent features, wide mouth. His manners were very easy and prepos- 
sessing in his social intercourse. As a speaker, he was fluent, clear, 
and interesting, voice musical and full-toned. He ranked among the 
classical debaters of the body; seldom taking part in the heavy 
debates requiring labored preparation ; but in those in which he 
engaged, he showed that he possessed a clear, discriminating mtellect 
of no ordinary character. Gen. Pierce resigned his seat in the Senate, 
and Levi Woodbury succeeded him. As my course has been, in these 
sketches of distinguished men, to give the readers the opportunity 
of judging for themselves of their style, I have looked over the 
debates in which Gen. Pierce took part, and have chosen, as just to 
him and the reader, the following extract from one of his speeches. 
He was Chairman of the Committee on Pensions. 

" There were cases of officers receiving pay for full disability, when 
in command of line-of-battle ships. The law of 1837 gave pay to 
officers from the time of their disability. He had been long enough 
connected with the Pension Committee to understand something of 
it. He had now in his drawer, more than fifty letters from officers of 
the army, neither begging nor imploring, but demanding to be placed 
on the same footing with the navy in regard to pensions. He thought 
on his conscience, that the pension system of this country was the 
worst on the face of the earth, and that they could never have either 
an army or a navy until there were reforms of more things than pen- 
sions. He pointed to the military academy appointments which 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 543 

rested on the influence that could be brought to bear by both Houses 
of Congress. He had looked on that scientific institution, from which 
no army would ever have a commander while West Point was in the 
ascendency ; and he would tell why. The principles upon which 
Frederick the Great and Napoleon acted, were those to make soldiers, 
where merit was reward always followed. But had they not witnessed 
cases of men of character, courage, and capacity asking, from day to 
day, in vain, for the humble rank of third lieutenant in your army, 
who would be glad to have such appointments? I know a man who, 
at the battle of Withlacoochie, had he performed the same service 
under Napoleon, would have received a hatnn. But in ours, what did 
he get? Three times did that gallant fellow, with his arm broken 
and hanging at his side, charge the Indians, and drive them from 
their hummocks, were they were intrenched. The poor sergeant staid 
in the service until his time expired, and that was all he got for his 
gallantry and disinterestedness. Such instances of neglect would 
upset any service, destroy all emulation, and check all proper pride 
and ambition in subordinates. If ever we were to have a good army 
or navy, we must promote merit in both branches of the science, as 
every truly great general has done, and every wise Grovernment ought 
to do." 



544 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



JOHN P. HALE. 

The State of New Hampshire tas produced many eminent men. 
Daniel Webster, Levi Woodbury, Isaac Hill, Ichabod Bartlett. Frank- 
lin Pierce, were all sons of New Hampshire, all distinguished men. 
After these came John P. Hale, the subject of this sketch, now a United 
States Senator from the same State. Perhaps no man in the United 
States has risen so ftist in the public mind within the last few years. 
Mr. Hale has given evidence of unusual popular powers. It has been 
owing to his instrumentality, that the Granite State has cut loose from 
her Democratic moorings, and become one of the strongest Republican 
States in the Union. She stood fast in the great political campaign 
of 1840, against the tornado that swept over the land, under the flag 
of Gen. Harrison, but she surrendered to John P. Hale and his allies 
on the question of the extension of Slavery. Mr. Hale is about the 
ordinary hight, well built, capacious chest, full-toned musical voice, 
large round head, square high forehead, full face, dark hair and eyes. 
wide mouth ; he speaks well, direct, strong, clear, to the point; he may 
be said to be a ready, humorous, prompt debater, rather than a pre- 
pared orator. He has high social powers, in his private intercourse. 
He speaks often, perhaps too frequently for effect. It is entirely possi- 
ble, for even a Senator to cheapen his wares, by oifering them daily 
to the Senate. I give an extract from his speech on the Ocean Tele- 
graph to show his stsyle, and his playful humor. 

" I have objections to considerations of the character which have 
just been spoken of on subjects of this ki^d. It seems to me that the 
war spirit and the contingencies of war are brought in a little too often 
upon Tiiatters of legislation which have no necessary connection with 
them. If we are to be governed by considerations of that sort, they 
would paralyze all improvement; they would stop the great appropria- 
tions for connneree ; they would at once neutralize that policy which 
sets our ocean steamers afloat. Nobody pretends that the intercourse 
which is kept up between Great Britain and this country by our ocean 
steamers would be continued in time of war; nor the communication 
with France or other nations. If we are deterred for that reason, we 
shall be pursuing a policy that will paralyze improvements on those 
parts of the coast which lie contiguous to the lakes. The city of 
Detroit will have to be abandoned, beautiful and progressive as it is, 
because in time of war, the mansions of her citizens, there lie within 
the range of British guns." 

Mr. Cass. — '• Do not be afraid about that." 



JOHN P. HALE. 545 

Mr. Hale. — " I confess that this consideration struck me very forci- 
bly when I visited that beautiful city in 1848, and reflected that the 
candidate of the Democratic party for the Presidency, lived directly in 
the range of British guns, in the city of Detroit. (Laughter.) If we 
are to be governed by considerations of this sort, all great enterprises 
will be paralyzed, because the question is brought up, What if war 
takes place? I do not care. What will the suspension bridge at 
Niagara be good for in a time of war ? If the British cut oif their 
end of it, our end will not be worth much. So it will be with all these 
improvements. I am not going to vaticinate or prophesy, or indulge 
in anticipations of the raillenium, but I do not believe it was the object 
of Providence, in creating this world and placing us here, that we 
should be in a continual state of warfare. My friend from Georgia 
(Mr. Toombs) thinks it is a mistake, and that war is the natural state. 
Well, sir, we are coming to the spiritual state. (Laughter.) We do 
not mean to live in the natural state any longer. Sir, we have got on 
for more than forty years without a war with Great Britain. I have 
no great doubt that we shall live forty years more without a war with 
Great Britain. I believe among the things which will bind us together 
in peace, this telegraph wire will be one of the most potent ; it will 
bind the two countries together literally, with cords of iron that will 
hold us in the bonds of peace. I am not one of those who are to 
hesitate about this if it is demonstrated, and I believe it is, that it will 
be useful and valuable in peace, subservient to the great cause of the 
advancement of civilization and the diffusion of information. I repu- 
diate entirely the policy which refuses to adopt it, because in time of 
v/ar it may be interrupted. Such a policy as that would drive us back 
to a state of barbarism. It would destroy the spirit of progress ; it 
would retard improvement ; it would paralyze all the advances which 
are making us a more civilized, and a more informed, and a better 
people than the one v>'hich preceded us. For these reasons I am in 
favor of the bill, and I would be for it if I were certain that in time 
of war we could never use the telegraph at all. I do not believe we 
can. I do not think you can make any sort of treaty by which the 
British Government will consent, if ever war should come, that our 
operators may go to Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, and send our 
messages over this wire. Suppose you do make a treaty, you must 
have at the other end of the wire, in Ireland, in the empire of Great 
Britain, in order to make this treaty good for any thing, somebody 
sworn to keep secret any communication that we may make. We may 
send our communications to England, notifying some of our agents 
there of some warlike preparation that we want to make ; and the 
35 



546 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

idea is entertained tere, that we shall have a sworn agent in Great 
Britain, who will keep our secrets and send our messages, and further 
our warlike purposes against Great Britain. No, sir, the idea is 
utterly absurd in itself. I do not mean that it is absurd as it comes 
from any body else's mouth. I desire to be courteous ; but I say that 
the idea, when you come to look at it, is absurd ; because it is impos- 
sible. It can not be done. You may make as many treaties as you 
please ; you may combine the letters of the alphabet into every possi- 
ble form, and you may make your treaty just as binding as you please. 
To make it practicable, you must have an agent at the other end of the 
line in Great Britain, sworn to keep your warlike secrets. Do you 
not see, sir, that it can not be done? If you mean to prepare for war, 
this is not a war measure. It can not be made subservient to the pur- 
poses of this Government in war, and is not calculated or intended for 
any thing of that sort. The great question is, is it a measure of peace 
and progress, and information ? Is it of the character of our post- 
office and our inland telegraph ? If it be so, let us take it on its 
merits as a peace measure, and admit — I will, for my humble self, as 
a friend and advocate of the bill — that it has no merits as a war 
measure, and can not, by possibility, be made subservient to that end. 



MILLARD FILLMOEE. 547 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 

For many years the subject of this sketch has filled a large space 
in the public mind, both in America and Europe, whether as con- 
nected with the State of New York and her politics, as a representa- 
tive in Congress from his District, or as President of the United 
States. Mr. Fillmore has filled a very high position with firmness and 
great practical good sense, demonstrating to the world that he pos- 
sesses a mind of a high order. It is not my purpose to speak of the 
Administration of Mr. Fillmore, as President of the United States. 
That is before the world and speaks for itself. Nor is it designed to 
enter into any of the embarrassing questions that beset him, nor yet 
to show his position in relation to the great parties of the United 
States, coming into power not by an election to the first ofiice, but by 
the death of President Taylor. I choose to give ray readers Millard 
Fillmore as he was, while chairman of the Committee on Ways and 
Means, in the House of Representatives of the United States, in the 
year 1842, at the time of the passage of the tariff of that year. I was 
at the time in habits of daily close intimacy with him. I greatly 
admired him as a ready, clear-headed, pleasant, common -sense man. 
Mr. Fillmore discharged the arduous duties of chairman of the com- 
mittee to the admiration of both sides of the House. He seemed to 
have in his head the whole financial condition of the Treasury in 
detail, with strong views of the policy to maintain its credit. Mr. 
Fillmore was a warm Whig, a devoted friend of Henry Clay and 
Daniel Webster. He placed himself strongly upon the American 
policy, and the perpetuity of the Union. I give the reader a valua- 
ble extract from his great speech in favor of the tariff of 1842, which 
will be read with interest at this day, since the operation of that act, 
and that o.f 1846, have been tested by the American people. 

" Every one must admit that the question under consideration is 
one of the greatest magnitude. Nothing of a purely domestic char- 
acter, affecting more interests, and calculated to excite more universal 
feeling for or against it, could be submitted to an American Congress. 
It involves the exercise of the highest legislative power — that which 
compels the people at large, who have established this Government, to 
contribute the necessary means to sustain it. Surely nothing short of 
the questions of war and peace can be of more importance to this coun- 
try than the mode in which we shall exercise this highly res^jonsible and 
delicate trust of raising revenue for the wants of the Grovernment. I 
am free to confess that the subject is so vast in extent, and so compli- 



548 EARLY INDIAXA TRIALS. 

cated and multifarious in its details, that I approacli it with doubt 
and distrust of my own powers, and unfeigned regret that this duty 
has not been assigned to more able and experienced hands. 

" But, sir, what has been our course on this subject in this country ? 
Why, for all political, commercial, and financial evils, some gentlemen 
maintain that free-irade is the great panacea. It is with them the 
philosopher's stone : it would prevent revulsions in commerce, supply 
the wants of your Treasury, and promote the prosperity of the com- 
munity. Others again, from other parts of the country, maintain 
that protection to Jiome mamifacturcrs is the great desideratum^ and 
the true remedy for all these evils. Each has his own peculiar theo- 
ries, and adheres to them with the blindness of prejudice and the 
tenacity of self-interest — each omitting, if not unwilling, to investi- 
gate the facts on which his own cherished theoi-y is based ; and the 
thunders of popular commotion produced by the storm of nullification 
have hardly died away in the distance, when the horizon gives omin- 
ous signs that another storm is approaching, and that this House and 
the country are again to be agitated by a fierce and blind contest 
about mere abstractions, while truth is obscured by the smoke of the 
fight, and lost sight of by the contending parties. I now proceed to 
the consideration of the bill itself, its design and object. It has been 
framed with a view of raising revenue to supply the wants of the 
Treasury, and I propose to consider it mainly as a revenue measure. 
The first question, therefore, is : What amount of revenue is required 
to carry on the Government ? For on this, in some measure, must 
depend the rate of duty imposed on every article in this bill. It is 
preliminary to all other questions, and should be first settled. In 
determining this, the opinion of the financial ofiicer of the Grovern- 
ment should have great weight, and I beg leave to call the attention 
of the House to his recent report to this House, submitting the pro- 
ject for this bill. 

" From this it will be perceived that the Secretary estimates the 
ordinary expenses of the Government for each of the years 1842, 1843, 
and '44, at $26,356,358.95, beside the liabilities of the Government for 
debts. Treasury notes, etc., which swell the amount to some $7,000,000 
or $8,000,000 more for each of those years, making the total required 
for the three years $98,242,953.73. The debts and other liabilities 
mentioned may be easily and certainly calculated, as their amount is 
known and must be paid ; but not so with the ordinary expenses of 
the Government. They vary from year to year, and will depend much 
on the administration of aifairs. It may not, however, be inexpedi- 
ent to refer to the past to enable us to judge of the future. Indeed, 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 549 

experience is the oiily true test in these matters. I therefore call the 
attention of the House to Doc. No. 31, furnished to this House at the 
extra session, from the Treasury Department, and at page 26 of that 
document you will find the following statement of disbursement, 
during the four years of Mr. Van Buren's administration, for the 
ordinary expenses of Government, viz : 

In 1837, -.--,- $31,610,003 09 

In 1838, 31,544,396 19 

In 1839, 25,443,716 94 

In 1840, - - - - - - 22,389,356 31 

Total, ----- $110,987,472 53 
Being an average of $27,746,868-13 for each year. 
" If this past experience affords a guide for future action, we may 
calculate that- the annual expenses of the Government hereafter will 
be between 627,000,000 and $28,000,000, independent of the amount 
necessary to be raised for the public debt now existing ; but I trust 
that we shall hereafter have more economy in the administration of 
public affairs, and that we shall not only expend less, but make a 
more beneficial application of what we do expend. But there has 
been much discussion on this subject, both in this House and the 
other, and same of the oldest and ablest statesmen in both branches 
have gone into laborious and ingenious investigations to show the 
probable ex2)enditures hereafter. Their results, varying from $18,- 
000,000 to $26,000,000, show how difficult the task is, and how little 
reliance can be placed on their estimates, where so much must be left 
to conjecture. I shall not attempt to follow them. 

" From the indications which we have seen here for a few days past. 
we might infer that a spirit of retrenchment had come over this House, 
and that the army and navy are to be greatly reduced. However I 
may regret the inconsiderate haste with which those acts were perpe- 
trated, which, to my mind, savored more of destruction than judicious 
reform, yet it must be admitted by all, if the Senate concur with 
this House in those measures, the annual expenditui"es of Government 
will be diminished. Taking all these things into consideration, I am 
willing to assume the ordinai'y expenses of Government will, for some 
years, if peace continue, be reduced some $3,000,000, or $4,000,000, 
annually ; and, if so, we may reasonably calculate that they will not 
exceed about $24,000,000, and may probably come as low as $23,000,- 
000 ; but this is rather to be desired than expected. But, allowing 
$24,000,000, which I think, is the safest estimate, and add to that 



550 EAELY IXDIANA TKJALS. 

$3,000,000, to pay the interest on the public debt, and provide a sink- 
ing fund for the ultimate payment of it, and you will require an 
annual revenue of $27,000,000, to meet the demands on the Treas- 
ury. I shall therefore assume that that amount must be pro- 
vided. This being the amount, the next question is, how shall it be 
raised? In what mode can these $27,000,000 be supplied to 
the National Treasury, with least inconvenience to the people ? Let 
us turn to the great charter, whence all our power is derived, and see 
what that says. 

" The very first grant of legislative power in the Constitution, is an 
authority to supply the requisite revenue to carry on the Government. 
The eighth section of the first article of the Constitution is in the fol- 
lowing words : 

" ' The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common 
defense and general welfare of the United States ; but all duties, im- 
posts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.' 

" There is the grant of power by which the Treasury is to be sup- 
plied. We can take our choice from three modes, and three only. 
First^ we may lay a direct tax; or, second!)/, we may lay excises; or, 
tJiirdly, we may lay duties or imposts. Now, to which shall we resort? 
We must select one, as no other power is given, unless it be to bor- 
row money ; and none will think of that for the ordinary wants of the 
Government. If gentlemen will take the trouble to look into the 
annual printed account of receipts and expenditures for 1840, at 
page 242, they will find a tabular statement of all moneys received into 
the Treasury, from every source, from the commencement of the Gov- 
ernment under the present Constitution, on the 4th of March, 1789, 
up to and including the year 1840. The whole amount received from 
all sources, except loans, was upward of $900,000,000. And from 
what sources do you suppose this vast amount was drawn ? (Mr. Fos- 
tci", of Georgia, was understood to inquire, if the amount collected by 
direct taxation was included in the statement of the gentleman ?) 

Mr. Fillmore. — " I speak of the whole amount collected, from the 
commencement of the Government down to 1840, inclusive, for the 
purpose of paying the debts and defraying the necessary expenses of 
the Government. During that time there have been periods when the 
ingenuity of man was taxed to its utmost to devise ways and means 
for supplying the Treasury ; and the history of our Government for 
more than fifty years, is worthy of consideration, on a subject like this. 
I will give you the sources whence this immense amount was derived. 



MILLARD FILLMOEE. 551 

They are as follows : 

From customs, or duties, - - - $746,923,302 20 

From excise, or internal revenue, - - 22,265,242 06 

From direct taxes, . - - - 12,744,737 56 

From postage, 1,092,227 52 

From the public lands, - - - 109,314,223 69 

Dividends, and sale of bank stock, and bonus, 20,889,977 75 



Making a grand total of $913,179,710 78 



'' Thus you have the history of excise duties. They originated with 
the Long Parliament, which was afterward dissolved by Cromwell. 
Both parties promised to abolish them at the close of the war. We 
need hardly be told by Blackstone, that, from their origin to the 
present time, their name has been odious, yet they have been contin- 
ued in Great Britain, and must be, for there every source of revenue 
has been exhausted, and every mode of taxation resorted to which 
ingenuity could invent, to raise the necessary means for carrying on 
an expensive government, and paying the interest upon their enor- 
mous public debt. And finally, the recent proceedings in Parliament 
show, that they have been compelled to adopt the war measure, and 
tax incomes to supply the deficiency. But I trust the necessities of 
such a nation are not to furnish precedents for us. Direct taxes and 
excises may be necessary and unavoidable in time of war ; but those 
who would resort to them in time of peace would do well to read the 
legislation and reports on these subjects, and especially a report made 
by' Mr. Bandolph, in 1802, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means, in which he states, that the expenses of collection are 
more than one-fifth, or 20 per cent ; that the duty is oppressive and 
vexatious, and peculiarly obnoxious to our citizens ; that the nature of 
excise is hostile to the genius of a free people, and its tendency is to 
multiply officers, and increase the patronage of the Executive ; and he 
finally recommends a total repeal. If other evidence is wanted that 
excise is odious to our people, it may be found in the insurrection of 
Pennsylvania against this very tax. With all these facts staring us 
in the face, is there any one here so bold as to propose excise duties 
on our own manufactures, to supply the necessary means of carrying 
on the Government? If not, what remains ? Nothing but the duties 
on imports; and to lay these duties is the object of the bill upon your 
table. This being the only remaining mode authorized by the Con- 
stitution, I deem it unnecessary to go into any argument to show that 
it is the best mode. All our experience proves that fact, and I owe 



552 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

an ajJology to tlie House for having occupied so much of its time in 
showing the objections to direct taxes and excise duties. But for a 
series of years I think we may rely upon this bill producing, on an 
average, about §27,000,000, annually. Yet, after all, any person who 
will look over the past years, and see how the revenue from customs 
varies, must be satisfied that we can not calculate with any certainty 
for any particular year. All we can rely upon, is a general result for 
a series of years. The deficiency of one is supplied by the excess of 
another, and so vice versa, each compensating the other. The amount 
has varied, within a few years past, from $13,000,000 to $24,000,000. 
Assuming, then, that this bill will only produce from $25,000,000 to 
$27,000,000, it seems to. me there is an end of the question, unless 
some gentleman can show that the duty on any particular item should 
be increased or diminished, with a view of adding to the amount of 
revenue. 

"It is unnecessary to talk about levying duties for j^roiecdon. If it 
is not exjjedient to resort to direct taxation, or excises, to supj)ly the 
Treasury, then we have no alternative but imjjosf. dudes, such as this 
bill proposes to lay, and protection to a reasonable extent becomes an 
incident which need not be sought, for it can not be avoided. It 
results as an inevitable consequence from a necessary and unavoidable 
act, and the bill becomes, as it was designed to be, a revenue bill, and 
a revenue bill only. 

" Although this is the view which I am disposed to take of this bill, 
and although I am willing to listen to any amendments to add to or di- 
minish the duty on any article, with a view of increasing the revenue, 
yet, I have no disguise of my own sentiments on the subject of pro- 
tecting our own industry. I am free to admit that I am not one of 
those who either feel or profess to feel indifferent to our own interests. 
I prefer my own country to all others, and my opinion is, that we 
must take care of ourselves ; and while I would not embarrass trade 
between this and any foreign country, by any illiberal restrictions, 
yet if by legislation or negotiation, an advantage is to be given to one 
over the other, I prefer my own country to all the world besides. I 
admit that duties may be so levied, ostensibly for revenue, yet design- 
edly for protection, as to amount to prohibition, and consequently 
to the total loss of revenue. I am for no such protection as that. I 
have no disguise of my opinions on this subject. I believe that if all 
the restrictive systems were done away with, here and in ever}^ other 
country, and we could confidently rely on continued peace, that 
would be the most prosperous and happy state. The people of every 
country would then produce that which their habits, skill, climate, 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 553 

soil or situation, enabled them to produce to the greatest advantage; 
each would then sell where he could obtain the most and buy where 
he could purchase cheapest ; and thus we should see a trade as free 
among the nations of the world as we now witness among the several 
States of this Union. But however beautiful this may be in theory, 
I look for no such political millenium as this. Wars will occur until 
man changes his nature; and duties will be imposed upon our pro- 
ducts in other countries until man shall cease to be selfish, or kings 
can find a more convenient mode of raising revenue than by imposts. 
But, there is yet another case where I hold that we are not only 
justified but required to encourage and protect our own industry; and 
I regret to say that this is a case which for obvious reasons, always has, 
and I fear always will, exist : it is where foreign nations, by their own 
legislation, exclude our products from their markets. We, as a whole, 
are an agricultural nation, occupying one of the broadest and most fer- 
tile tracts of country in the world. The South produces sugar, cotton, 
rice, and tobacco, and the North and West produce beef, pork, and 
breadstulfs. It appears, by the last census, that we have 3,717,756 
persons engaged in agriculture, and only 791,545 in manufactures and 
trades, being near five to one employed in agriculture. Our lands 
are cheap and our soils productive ; but if other nations prohibit the 
introduction of our products to their markets by high duties, what is 
our remedy? We want their manufactures ; we ofi'er them our bread- 
stufis in exchange ; but they refuse to receive them : what shall we do ? 
I say, meet restriction by resti-iction. Impose duties on their manufac- 
\ tures, and thereby encourage a portion of our own people, now raising 
wheat and corn to rot in their granaries, to engage in manufactures ; 
thus lessening the amount of agricultural products, by converting a part 
of your producers into consumers, thereby creating a home market 
for your agricultural products, and thus raising their price. Is not 
this just ? Great Britain has no right to complain that we meet restric- 
tion by restriction. We offer her our flour, pork, and beef for her iron, 
cloths, and other manufactures. She refuses our products, and draws 
upon our specie, crippling our banks, deranging our currency, and 
paralyzing our industry. We must protect ourselves, create and pre- 
serve a market for our own products, until she will consent to meet us 
on equal terms ; and this, not by way of retaliation, hut in self-defense. 
" But I take a distinction between the encoiiragement mid. protection 
of manufactures. It is one thing for the Government to encourage 
its citizens to abandon their ordinary pursuits and engage in a particu- 
lar branch of industry, and a very different thing whether the Gov- 
ernment is bound to protect that industry by laws similar to those by 



554 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

whicli it encouraged its citizens to embark in it. In the first place, 
there is no obligation on the part of the Government; its act is entire- 
ly voluntary and spontaneous. It may, or may not, encourage the 
production or manufacture of a particular article, as it shall judge 
best for the whole community. Before attempting it the Grovernment 
should weigh well the advantages and disadvantages which are likely 
to result to the whole, and not to the particular class which may be 
tempted to engage. If a particular branch of industry is so important 
in its bearings upon the public wants, on account of its providing in 
time of peace, for some necessary article in time of war, then, as 
the strongest advocates of free-trade themselves admit, the Govern- 
ment may and should legislate with a view to encourage its establish- 
ment ; and so, likewise, if it be necessary to provide a home market 
for our products, in consequence of the prohibitory duties levied upon 
them by foreign countries. But all these are questions to be decided 
according to the circumstances of each particular case ; and, as I said, 
the decision should be made with a view to the benefit of all, and not 
of a few, or of any particular class or section of country. But when 
the Government has decided that it is best to give the encouragement, 
and the citizen has been induced by our legislation to abandon his 
former pursuits, and to invest his capital, and apply his skill and labor 
to the production of the article thus encouraged by Government ; 
then a new question arises, for another party has become interested, 
and that is, whether we will by our subsequent legislation withdraw 
our protection from the citizen whom we have thus encouraged to 
embark his all in a particular branch of business for the good of the 
public, and overwhelm him with ruin by our unsteady, not to say per- 
fidious legislation. I can consent to no such thing. It seems to me 
to be manifestly unjust. Our act, in the first instance, is free and 
voluntary. We may give the encouragement or not ; but, having 
given it, the public faith is to a certain extent pledged : those who 
have accepted our invitation, and embarked in these new pursuits, 
have done so under the implied promise on our part, that the encour- 
agement thus given should not be treacherously withdrawn, and that 
we would not tear down what we had encouraged them to build up. 
This I conceive to be a just, clear, and broad distinction between 
encouragement beforehand and protection afterward. The former is 
voluntary, depending wholly upon considerations of public policy and 
expediency; the latter is a matter of good faith to those who have 
trusted to the national honor. There is a further necessity for dis- 
crimination ; and this, I suppose, will be strongly urged by the anti- 
protection men ; it arises from the fict that the article on which you 



MILLAED FILLMORE. 555 

impose the duty can be produced as cheaply, or nearly as cheaply, in 
this country as in any other. In such cases a small duty becomes 
prohibitory. Take, for instance, raw cotton or flour. We produce 
more of these articles than we consume. They can hardly be import- 
ed without duty, and a very small duty is entirely prohibitory ; and 
when we become a manufacturing nation it will be so with regard to 
all our manufactures. Great Britain has reached this point, and hence 
we witness the strange phenomenon of Sir Robert Peel, as the leader 
of the British House of Commons, declaring himself in favor of free- 
trade, and against the imposition of any duty on manufactures over 
twenty per cent. And why is this ? Simply because Great Britain 
manufactures more than she wants for her own consumption. Any 
duty, however high, is merely nominal, as nothing can be imported ; 
and no duty affords any protection in the foreign market, where she 
has to meet and compete with all the world. The truth is, she has 
practiced the protection system so long that her home market is sup- 
plied by her own manufactures and now, forsooth, she pretends to 
great merit in reducing duties which she can no longer collect. But 
mark the caution with which Sir Robert Peel speaks of the duty on 
sugar. He declines esplai;aing why he does not recommend a reduc- 
tion of duty on that article. Is not the reason obvious enough ? The 
climate of England is too cold to produce that article. No duty, 
however high, can operate as a prohibition, so long as people will use 
it; and it may, therefore, be taxed to almost any extent for revenue. 
This, doubtless, is the true reason why the duty is not reduced. It is 
known to the House that there are two modes of imposing duties — 
one ad valorem, the other specific ; one looking to value, the other to 
quantity merely. I am aware that there is a feeling, which has per- 
vaded the community ever since the Compromise Act, in favor of ad 
valorem duties, as the preferable form of the two. 

" Now, I do not know, and can not pretend to say, how far preju- 
dice or misconception may operate in this matter. Probably a little 
further examination of the subject would change opinions hastily 
taken up. I concede that, in theor}", which often holds out to us a 
false light, 

'That leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind,' 

the ad valorem mode may seem to be the best, because it may be 
argued that, in this mode, the duty is in proportion to the actual 
value of the thing taxed, which is the most conformable to justice. In 
theory it seems very plausible. But by experience, which, after all, 
is the best teacher, it is found that this apparently just mode of taxa- 
tion leads to the most dangerous and the most mischievous results. 



556 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

If gentlemen will look at the last tariff proposed in England, they 
will find that the duties are specific wherever it is possible to make 
them so. And why? Why was this done by so wise, and experienced, 
and cautious a nation ? Because, in imposing an ad valorem duty, 
regard is always had to the cost of the article abroad, and not where 
the duty is paid. It may be asked why is this ? Why not calculate 
the duty on the value of the article where imported ? Because it is 
found impracticable. There are different qualities of the same article, 
and men's opinions as to those qualities are always found to differ ; 
hence, ad valorem duties can not be made uniform. Thus, a gallon 
of wine imported into New York, may there have one value ; a gallon 
of the very same wine imported into Charleston, may have there a 
higher or a lower value ; it is matter of opinion. And if the duties 
are to be levied on this ' home valuation,' as it is called, the duties 
will not be uniform, as the Constitution requires them to be. 

"Although I am in favor of cash duties, in preference to the prac- 
tice which has heretofore prevailed, I am also in favor of a modified 
warehousing system. This I consider as the true substitute for the 
credit system. The Secretary of the Treasury has not, indeed, made 
any recommendation on this subject, because, as he states, he has not 
had time to examine it. He leaves it entirely to Congress. The 
warehousing plan forms no part or feature of his project ; and there- 
fore the Committee of Ways and Means have not considered it their 
duty to enter into the subject, as they otherwise would have done. 
What are the benefits it is calculated to produce ? The plan has been 
adopted in Europe for many years. Indeed, it is about a ceutur}' 
since the first attempt was made to introduce it into England, under 
the administration of Sir Robert Walpole ; but so great were the 
clamors of the merchants, who had long been in the habit of defraud- 
ing the Government by obtaining credit on their bonds, that the 
Administration was finally forced to abandon the scheme. Indeed, 
Walpole was at one time in danger of losing his life by a mob, in 
consequence of his endeavors to carry it through Parliament. Since 
then, it never has been successfully attcmjited, until 1803, when it 
was adopted by the British Government, and has been practiced ever 
since. I have here a synopsis of the acts in reference to it. The 
warehousing system is a provision for lodging imported articles in 
warehouses until they are taken out and entered, and duties paid for 
home consumption ; if they are re-exported the duty is remitted. 

" But, sir, I will not dwell upon it. I feel exhausted myself, and 
fear I have wearied the patience of the House, with this long and 
imperfectly digested statement of the provisions of this bill. I feel 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 557 

I owe the House an apology for the very imperfect and unsatisfactory 
manner in which I have been able to discharge the duty devolved on 
me ; but constant and unwearied attention in the committee-room to 
the details of the bill, has prevented that attention to the general 
subject that was due to its importance. 

" It only remains that I return my most sincere and grateful thanks 
to the House, for the kind and j^atieut indulgence with which it has 
listened to my remarks, for which I feel that I am indebted rather to 
the interest felt in the subject itself than to any thing in my manner 
of presenting it." 



658 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 



MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

The history of the distinguished subject of this sketch is so intim- 
ately connected with that of his country, that the one can not be read 
intelligibly without the other. In person, Mr. Van Buren, like Mr. 
Adams, was below the common hight ; head large, with retreating- 
high forehead, bald to the ears, sandy thin hair, light sandy whiskers, 
light blue eyes, fine features. He was social, kind, pleasant, in his 
private intercourse, but, like Mr. Adams, he merely touched the ends 
of your fingers when he took your hand : not like Gen. Jackson and 
Henry Clay, who always grasped your hand warmly up to the thumb. 
The high and responsible positions held by Mr. Van Buren for many 
years, at home and abroad, place him at once in the first rank of his 
eminent countrymen. It is no part of the purpose of this sketch, to 
disturb his position, or to mutilate the record, much less to write the 
biography of Mr. Van Buren ; let that be the task of the biographical 
historian. The incidents and facts, connected with his professional 
and public life, would fill a most interesting volume. 

I had known Mr. Van Buren, through the public press, many yearSj 
but only became personally acquainted with him during the last two 
years of his administration. He had been Secretary of State under 
President Jackson. I had read his diplomatic correspondence ; I 
was apprized that he had the ear and the confidence of the President ; 
I had seen the ear of Gen. Jackson withdrawn from Mr. Calhoun, 
placing Mr. Van Buren supreme in prospect for the succession. Gen. 
Jackson had been re-elected for the second term, by an overwhelming 
majority. The Democratic party stood united, with the exception of 
a small section of nullifiers in the South, with Mr. Calhoun at their 
head. It soon became obvious to the public that Mr. Van Buren was 
to be the Democratic nominee for the succession. It was seen that 
the administration was directed to his success. He received the nom- 
ination, and was elected by a plurality of the votes of the people, 
but by a majority of the electoral votes, over Daniel Webster, Hugh 
Lawson White, and Gen. Harrison. Coming into power in the wake 
of Gen. Jackson, and pledged to tread politically in his footsteps, he 
seemed to have before him nothing but plain sailing. He had a 
right to expect the support of the Democratic party, so long as he 
administered the Government upon the principles of the Jackson 
administration. His Cabinet was composed of distinguished Demo- 
crats. [?ut the strength of the party proved the weakness of the 
Administration. Experience has fully proved, that in all popular 
governments, the greatest danger to the dominant party consists in 



MAETIN VAN BUEEJ^-. 559 

its supposed power and security. There is always more danger from 
internal dissensions than from external violence. So long as the fear 
of the enemy exists, so long will the camp stand to their arms united, 
and the watchmen remain at their posts ; but the moment it is believed 
that there is no danger without, the very watchmen will mutiny. 
The Whig party was supposed to be almost annihilated by the second 
election of Gen. Jackson, and whatever of strength they had left, 
so divided and distracted as to give the Democratic party no alarm. 
From the moment Mr. Van Buren was inaugurated the dissensions 
commenced, and the party strength began to wane ; still the leading 
politicians of the party stood by him. At the expiration of his term, 
he was nominated for the succession, and entered the contest upon a 
decreasing popularity. The Whig Convention at Harrisburgh nomin- 
ated Gen. Harrison as their candidate; and it was now evident that 
the contest was to be even-handed. It was feared by the Whig party, 
that there might be some dissentients of those who preferred Mr. Clay 
or Mr. Webster to Gen. Harrison ; and it was evident, from the tone 
of the Democratic press, that much reliance was placed upon that 
fact; but the magnanimous course pursued by Mr. Clay and Mr. Web- 
ster, in warmly supporting the nominee, dispelled all fears on the one 
hand, and all hopes on the other. 

The election came on. Gen. Harrison was elected by an overwhelm- 
ing majority of the people, as well as of the electoral vote. The great 
Democratic party that was supposed to be impregnable, was not only 
defeated, but scattered to the winds. Gen. Harrison survived his 
inauguration but a short month. Mr. Tyler, the Vice President, 
elected on the Whig ticket, became the Constitutional President, and 
deserted the Whig party, as I have stated in my sketch of John Tyler. 
Here again, a great party coming into power by an overwhelming 
majority, was in a few months in a hopeless minority. Of the Tyler 
administration, I say nothing ; it was only remarkable for the evidence 
it affords of the stability of our Government, under the most trying, 
political circumstances. The Administration of Mr. Tyler, had the 
confidence of no party ; still it received sufficient support from both 
parties, to enable it to administer the Government. 

Time rolled on. The term of Mr. Tyler was about to expire ; the 
party cry resounded again through the land ; the delegates of the 
Democratic party met at Baltimore, to nominate their candidate for 
President. The names of Mr. Van Buren and Gen. Cass were prom- 
inent. The rule requiring two-thirds to make a nomination, was intro- 
duced by the friends of Gen. Cass, and obtained a majority. The 
balloting commenced. Mr. Van Buren received a majority of all the 



•560 EAELY INDIANA. TRIALS. 

votes, but never readied the two-thirds, required for a nomination. 
The main wings of the convention, despairing of obtaining two-thirds 
for either of the prominent candidates, with entire unanimity fell 
upon James K. Polk, as the compromise candidate, and he was placed 
at the head of the Democratic national ticket. 

The nomination took all parties by surprise. It was considered at 
the time, as a weak ticket, but the result proved that its weakness was 
its strength. Mr. Polk had no enemies. All the shades of the party 
could unite upon him. He was comparatively unknown, although he 
had filled many high offices, and was a good man. There were occa- 
sional amusing paragraphs in the papers, immediately upon the nomi- 
nation. I have some recollection of one that was significant at the 
time. I have lost the original that I cut from the paper, but give the 
substance. A horseman dashes up to the door of Tammany Hall, where 
the sachems were standing, waiting for the news from Baltimore. " I'll 
bet my bay, that you can not guess in four guesses who is the nomi- 
nee." "Bone, we'll take the bet, and win the bay."' "Van Buren," 
"Cass," "Buchanan," " Marcy." " None of these." "Then who on 
earth can it be?" "James K. Polk." " And wdio is he?" "Why 
James K. Polk of Tennessee." ' " Three cheers for James K. Polk, 
our nominee, the very man we thought it would be." There lies the 
strength of the Democratic party. The nominee is the very man they 
thought it would be. "With James K. Polk, the eonventio)i nominated 
Silas "W^right, of New York, the attached personal and political friend 
of Mr. "Van Buren, for Vice President. Mr. Wright declined accept- 
ing, but afterward at the urgent solicitation of his political friends, 
accepted the nomination for Governor of New York ; ran and was 
elected over Mr. Fillmore, and by running, no doubt gave the State 
of New York to Mr. Polk over Mr. Clay. 

Mr. Van Buren was never reconciled to his defeat, which he charged 
no doubt correctly to the friends of Gen. Cass, in pressing the two- 
thirds rule that had defeated his nomination. At the subsequent 
nomination of Gen. Cass, Mr. Van Buren refused to support him, 
received and ran upon the Buffalo free-soil nomination, and unques- 
tionably caused the election of Gen. Taylor over Gen. Cass. Soon 
after that election, Mr. Van Buren made the tour of Europe, was 
received every whero, with distinguished regard and high considera- 
tion. He returned home in fine health, and again coalesced with the 
Democratic party. He is now enjoying a green old age, at his Kin- 
derhook residence in New York. He is the father of John Van Bu- 
ren, distinguished as a New York lawyer and politician of more 
modern times. 



LUCIAN BARBOUR. 561 



LUCIAN BARBOUR. 

The subject of tliis sketch during the last session, took a prominent 
stand among the Republican Members of Congress. Representing 
the center district of the State, including the capital, his position was 
looked to by his constituents with much interest. Mr. Barbour is in 
person tall and commanding, hair sandy, inclined to red, eyes light, 
features prominent. As a speaker, he is plain, distinct, clear, and 
forcible ; he makes no pretense to declamatory eloquence, but always 
speaks sensibly upon the facts before him. He has the advantages of 
a good early education. At the bar, Mr. Barbour stands deservedly 
high, among the first, while his high moral character gives great 
weight to his standing in society. For the purpose of placing before 
the reader his style, I give a short extract from his speech delivered 
in Congress the 18th of March last, in the contested election case 
from the Territory of Kansas. 

•' The honorable gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Hall), who has just 
taken his seat, professes to be in favor of an investigation, but he 
desires that it shall be conducted subject to certain rules and regula- 
tions, which would prohibit the committee from inquiring into the 
validity of the late Territorial Legislature, and forbid all inquiry into 
the validity of the election laws, and the certificates of the election. 
He is opposed to an investigation upon the basis proposed by the 
committee. He insists that we have no right to inquire whether the 
Legislature of Kansas Territory was legally constituted ; that we have 
no right to inquire into its origin ; and that the laws enacted by that 
t)ody are binding upon the country and upon this House. 

" Now, Mr. Speaker, it is my purpose to show that it is our duty to 
use all the means within our power to bring all the facts before this 
House and before the country ; to do it by strict rules of law, but 
without regard to technicalities. In the investigation of frauds, vio- 
lence, and corruption, forms of law, merely, can not be interposed. 
Forms of law, of legislature, or executive or judicial jiroceedings, can 
not legalize fraud, violence, and corruption. We have referred this 
matter to a standing committee of the House, and, in the discharge 
of their duty, they ask the House for authority to send for persons 
and papers — a power which has always heretofore been granted to a 
committee when asked for. The committee have stated in their report 
the facts which are alleged before them by the contestant, and have 
given their reasons why they ask for this authority. Some authority 
of this kind must be granted to this committee, or to a select com- 
36 



562 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

mittee. It would be according to precedents to grant this request. It 
would be contrary to the custom of the House to constitute another 
committee for the investigation of a matter which properly belongs to 
the Committee of Elections. They have the responsibility of the 
matter; let them control the action. 

" I have said that the allegations of the contestant are before us. 
The minority of the committee in their report, and the gentlemen who 
have spoken upon the other side of the House, say, in answer, that if 
the charges are true, still it is not competent for the House to inquire 
into them, or take any notice of them ; that they belong to another 
forum ; that they have been passed upon and settled elsewhere ; and 
that this House, as well as all other departments of the Government, 
are bound by the decision. This, Mr. Speaker, is a fair statement of 
their position. 

" The authority of the House to make this inquiry is derived from 
the Constitution. ' Each House shall be the judge of the elections, 
returns, and qualifications of its members.' It is argued by the other 
Bide of the House, that the grant, ex vi termini, is confined to the elec- 
tion and returns; that we can not inquire into any anterior facts or 
proceedings. This they say is strict and correct construction. I have 
stated their argument in as strong terms as they have stated it them- 
selves. Let us examine it. The grant of the power to judge, is a 
grant of all the means necessary to form a correct and impartial judg- 
ment, and the power to enforce it. The entire jurisdiction is given, 
and it is limited only by the subject matter. It includes the right 
and necessity of taking testimony, with all the incidents and coercions. 
The inquiry must be comprehensive, and embrace all the substantial 
elements that enter into the elections and returns. The jurisdiction 
is not given by halves, nor in limited terms ; it is given for a public 
use and the preservation of the Government, and must be so exercised. 
In the other end of the Capitol, the majority of the Committee on 
Territories have recently made a report upon the state of affairs in 
Kansas. In that report an inquiry is made as to the right of the 
United States to establish and maintain a Government in Kansas. 
The committee maintain that the United States have rightfully estab- 
lished the Government there, and that it is their duty to sustain it. 
But they say that the right is not derived from the clause of the Con- 
stitution giving to Congress power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations for the territory and other property of the Uni- 
ted States. They say it grows out of the clause of the Constitution 
which provides that ' new States may be admitted by Congress into 
this Union.' They argue, that since Congress may admit new States, 



LUCIAN BARBOUR. 563 

Congress is thereby invested with the necessary power to organize 
Territories. This is their language : ' Is not the organization of a 
Territory eminently necessary and proper, as a means of enabling the 
people thereof to form and mold their local and domestic institutions, 
and establish a State government, under the authority of the Consti- 
tution, preparatory to its admission into the Union ? ' I do not mean, 
by citing this, to express any approval of the reasoning of the major- 
ity of the Senate committee. I dissent from it. But I cite it to show 
how di£Ferent members of the same party contrive to shift their posi- 
tion — sometimes on the strict, and sometimes on the liberal construc- 
tion — just as the exigency of the occasion requires. By this rule, it 
seems that the power to admit new States implies the power to organ- 
ize and continue the government of a Territory ; but the power to 
judge of the validity of an election, does not imply the right to 
inquire whether the time and place of holding an election were desig- 
nated by the people of the Territory, and the rules regulating the 
same were founded and established in fraud and violence. The state- 
ment of the case is a sufficient refutation. This House has repeatedly 
held that every thing that pertains to or enters into the elements of 
an election is properly the subject of inqu.iry in cases of contests. 

" I proceed now to notice some of the numerous cases of contests 
upon which the House and Senate have passed. These cases establish 
the following positions : 

" 1. This House will examine into the powei's and jurisdiction of 
State courts, and the validity of their proceedings. This was the case 
of Biddle vs. Richard, in the eighteenth Congress. The contest rela- 
ted to the sitting Delegate from the Territory of Michigan. He was 
a native of France, and had made his application to, and received his 
certificate of naturalization from, the court of the county of Wayne, 
in that Territory. It was objected, that the court was not competent 
to naturalize foreigners. This objection was entertained by this House, 
and involved the jurisdiction of the court, and the validity of a certifi- 
cate granted by it. 

" 2. This House will examine into the validity of a State law. This 
was the ease of Barney vs. Mc Creery in the Tenth Congress. The 
contest related to a member from the State of Maryland. By an act 
of the Assembly of that State, Baltimore city and county were made 
the fifth district, entitled to two Representatives, one of which should 
be a resident of Baltimore county, and the other should be a resident 
of Baltimore city. The question was raised in that case, and enter- 
tained by the House, whether a law of a State which required that a 
citizen, to be eligible, should reside in a particular part of the district, 



564 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

was Constitutional ; and this House held that it was not. In another 
case, Draper is. Johnston, in the twenty-second Congress, which 
related to a contest of a member from Virginia, this House entertained 
a question as to the effect of a State law, and held that ' the law requiring 
votes to be returned within a limited time teas directory only ; and if 
they were not returned by the time, the election was not thereby viti- 
ated — they might be received afterward.' 

" 3. This House will even look into the provisions of State Constitu- 
tions. This has been done during the present Congress, in the Sen- 
ate ; and that body holds the provision in the Constitution of the State 
of Illinois, in relation to the eligibility of the Judges of that State to 
United States offices, to be void. We have the same question to pass 
upon, in this House, at this session. 

" 4. This House will inquire into the legality of a Territorial Legis- 
lature. This was the case of Randolph va. Jennings, in the eleventh 
Congress, and related to the Delegate from the Territory of Indiana. 
The case being referred to the committee, the question was raised and 
entertained in the committee, and in the House, whether the Legis- 
lature which enacted the law under which the election was held was a 
valid Legislature, legally constituted. The question was entertained 
without objection, and that is enough to establish the principle. There 
was also a question as to the regularity of the election returns. Both 
questions were passed upon by the House. 

" 5. The Senate did, on one occasion, inquire into the legality of a 
State Legislature. This was the case of Potter vs. Robbins, in the 
twenty-third Congress. The facts were these : On the 19th of Jan- 
uary, 1833, Mr. Robbins was elected, by the Legislature of the State 
of Rhode Island, to the Senate of the United States, for the term of 
six years from the 4th of March succeeding. His credentials were in 
due form made out and furnished to him, and in February of the 
same year read in the Senate and recorded on its journals. In Octo- 
ber, 1833, the General Assembly of Rhode Island declared this election 
void, on the ground that the Legislature by which it was made had 
not, at the time, a due and legal existence ; and, proceeding to the 
election of another person, they made choice of Mr. Potter. The 
question of the legal existence of the Legislature which elected Mr. 
Robbins, was entertained and passed upon in the Senate of the United 
States in judging of the validity of the election of the sitting Senator. 

" 6. The Senate of the United States on another occasion, passed 
upon the validity of the appointment of a Senator by the Governor 
of Connecticut, and determined that it was not competent for the Ex- 
ecutive of a State, in the recess of the Legislature, to appoint a Sena- 



LUCIAN BARBOUR, 565 

tor, to fill a vacancy wtich was about to happen, but had not happened 
at the time of the appointment. 

" Mr. Speaker there are numerous other cases that might be cited to 
sustain the application made by the committee. Some of them have 
already been cited by gentlemen who have spoken upon this side of 
the question, and I will not consume the time of the House in exam- 
ining them. Some of these cases are peculiarly in point. They estab- 
lish the right and usage of the House to examine into the validity of 
even a State Legislature, upon the proper allegations. In the case of 
Potter vs. Eobbins, the majority of the committee in their report, dis- 
cussed the following propositions : ' 1st. Was the commission of 
Asher Robbing made and executed in conformity with the provisions 
of the Constitution of the United States, and the laws and usages of 
Rhode Island, prescribing the time, place and manner of choosing 
Senators to Congress? 2d. Was Mr. Robbins, at the time of his 
election, eligible, according to the Constitution of the United States, 
to the office of Senator ? 3d. Was he chosen by the Legislature of 
the State of Rhode Island ? ' In examining the third question, the 
majority of the committee say that, to constitute a Legislature, there 
must be in existence a Governor, a Senate and House of Representa- 
tives ; and to pass upon that question correctly, and determine whether 
the term of office of the Governor and Senate had expired before the 
time of the election of Mr. Robbins, they examined into ' the ancient 
charter of Charles IL, of England, granted to the Colony of Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations, in 1663, which had not been 
superseded by a written Constitution since the Revolution, and into 
the various laws which had been enacted, modifying the provisions of 
the charter.' After examining the charter and laws, and finding that 
the Legislature was elected, and assembled according to law, they say, 
' It remains then, to be inquired, was this body so assembled, the Leg- 
islature of Rhode Island ? The law, by virtue of which they continued 
to exercise the power of legislation, is said to be repugnant to the 
charter. If this be a sound objection, it at once annuls every part of 
their proceedings, and, as a necessary consequence, that of choosing a 
Senator in Congress.' The minority differed from the majority in 
their conclusions, upon the examination. The minority report was 
written by *S'(7as Wright., Jr. In that report he says: 'Will the Sen- 
ate look behind this commission, to determine whether or not it was 
properly granted ? The undersigned believes that it is not only the 
right, but the duty, of the Senate to do so.' ;k ^ * 

• The question now presented is, Was Mr. Robbins chosen by the 



566 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

LcgislaUire of the State of Rliode Island?' He could not but con- 
sider it a plain proposition, and not requiring argument to support 
it, that when the Constitutional organization of a body of men, claim- 
ing to be the Legislature of a State, is the question in issue, the acts 
of that body, whose Constitutional powers are disputed, are not to be 
advanced as evidence of the Constitutional power of the body to per- 
form them. When the Constitutionality of a legislative act is in ques- 
tion, he could not believe that the act itself is to be relied upon as 
evidence of its own validity. Equally clear was it to his mind, that 
•when such a question was to be determined, the consequences of pro- 
nouncing the act invalid were not considerations which should legiti- 
mately control the decision. The act is either Constitutional or uncon- 
stitutional. If Constitutional, the dispute is settled. If unconstitu- 
tional, no consequences to follow from the pronunciation of the fact, 
can make it valid. So with the body claiming to be the Legislature of 
the State. If it is the Legislature of the State, according to the pro- 
visions of its constitution, the controversy is at an end ; if it is not 
the Legislature of the State, no act of theirs in their assumed charac- 
ter, and no consequences to follow from the invalidity of those acts, can 
give them the powers which they had not when the acts were per- 
formed, or make them what they were not, the Legislature of the 
State. But if consequences can be legitimately considered i i the 
argument, the undersigned feels compelled to say, that to his mind the 
decision that the State of Rhode Island has no fundamental law or 
constitution of government bat the will of its Legislature, will be a 
consecj[uenee to its people much more serious than any which can be 
apprehended from pronouncing void the acts of the body of men 
assuming to be the Legislature of the State from May, 1832, to May, 
1833.' It will be seen, by an examination of the reports of the com- 
mittee, that no party hesitated to entertain the question involving the 
yalidity of the Legislature, but they differed in their construction of 
the charter of Charles II. 

" In the case of the Delegate from Indiana, above referred to, the 
committee in their report say : ' After deliberate examination of the 
laws relative to Indiana Territoiy, they consider it to be their duty to 
investigate the authority under which the election of a Delegate to 
represent that Territory was held, previous to the examination of the 
irregularities suggested ; because, if the election was held without 
authority of law, it was void, without regard to irregularities.' The 
committee proceed to say, that the law under which the election was 
held was void, because the Legislature which directed the election 



LUCIAN BARBOUR. 567 

was not a valid Legislature. This same question, which involved the 
principle now before the House, was then entertained, and that ia 
enough for our purpose. 

" When the gentlemen upon the other side of the House argue 
that we can not go behind the Legislature of Kansas in our inquiry, 
or behind any law of the Legislature, they do not advance a single 
step in the argument. They evade the question before the House, 
and confound distinctions. No one claims the right to disregard a 
Legislature or any of its acts — I mean a valid Legislature, for there 
can be no other, in fact. The true question is. Was that body in 
Kansas the Legislature f The gentlemen, in their argument, beg the 
■question, and reason gravely from the conclusion to the premises. 
They confound the question of fact, with the legal consequences of 
the fact. If that body was the legal Legislature, we can not press our 
inquiries beyond it. If it was not the legal Legislature, it presents 
no barrier to our inquiries, and none of its acts are laws. Nothing 
but the will of the people of Kansas, legally expressed, could create 
a Legislative body for that Territory. The charge is, that the will 
of the people had not been expressed, but that a body of men had 
been chosen by fraud, violence, and corruption ; and that this body, in 
furtherance of the fraud, organized in the form of a Legislature, and 
usurped its authority. When we are told that we must take this 
body as the legal Legislature, and the laws as we find them, we reply 
that we will look into the elements which compose this supposed 
Legislature. 

" What I have said of fraud applies also to violence. A person 
acting under duress is at liberty to disavow the act, when restored to 
his liberty ; much more is he at liberty to repel the force by which 
he is restrained ; and no lapse of time or circumstance, while the 
usurpation or force continues, can interpose to prevent him from 
asserting his rights. So, if the supposed Legislature of Kansas was 
imposed upon the people by external violence, they are not only free 
from allegiance to the laws of such a Legislature, but they are bound 
to resist them, and set them aside. Submission to such laws would be 
treason to the State. While unreserved submission to the law is the 
duty of an American citizen, he has no right to tolerate a tyrant or 
usurper upon American soil. Such are the principles of American 
jurisprudence and American politics. 

" Although we have precedents for the inquiry which the report of 
the committee contemplates, I confess that I would not hesitate one 
moment to enter upon the investigation of this charge, even if we 
could find no precedent for it. The case furnishes its own authority. 



568 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

The principles involved are fundamental. The wrong charged is 
startling. If true, all civil rights in the Territory are prostrated. 
There is no free government left. If the same wrong should be 
perpetrated in every State, Republicanism would be at an end. The 
right to investigate such charges must pertain to this House. The 
duty to redress such wrong, is coequal with the power of the Govern- 
ment. We have no right to shut our eyes to an evil which threatens 
our existence. 

" When I was interrupted by the gentleman from Missouri, I was 
examining the facts that are alleged by the contestants as the ground- 
work for the investigation. They are grave charges. They involve 
fraud and corruption, violence and crime. They are, in substance, 
that an invasion has been set on foot, in one of the States of the 
Union, against a defenseless Territory, which resulted in a triumphant 
.usurpation ; that the rights and will of the people have been disre- 
garded ; and that a foreign power is now dominant in that Territory. 
The answer given by the gentlemen upon the other side of the House 
is, that even if these things are so, we can not go behind the forms of 
the Legislature and the law, to inquire into the substance. 

" The gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Davis), spoke learnedly and 
eloquently upon the right of the House to pursue this inquiry. He 
admitted that, under some circumstances, we might inquire into the 
validity of a Legislature and of a law ; but he thought this was a 
political question, and that its decision rested with the Executive. He 
argued, that because the Executive, in the execution of the law, must 
determine this question, it was therefore proper that his decision 
should control this House and the country. In that, I conceive, the 
learned gentleman departed from his usual accuracy. The Exec- 
utive must execute the laws, and he is often called upon tc judge of 
and construe them. But his judgment does not bind the courts, or 
the Legislature. Indeed, it often happens that his proceedings are 
reversed by the judgment of a court, rendered against the validity of 
a law. 

"The fault in the gentleman's argument is, that he did not take the 
proper distinction. He spoke of the question as being political, and 
not judicial. If there is any such distinction strictly, it is not in the 
subject matter, but in the action upon the subject matter. The action 
of the Executive is political, and not judicial; nor is it legislative. 
The action of the Executive begins and terminates in the Executive 
department. So the action of this House begins and terminates with 
its own proceedings. The House is sovereign in its own sphere of 
action. Its decision can not be passed upon in review elsewhere. The 



LUCTAN BARBOUE. 569 

House has not only plenary jurisdiction in judging of the elections, 
returns, and qualifications, of its members, but it also has plenary 
power to execute its decisions. It calls upon no other department for 
advice or assistance. It pronounces its decrees, arms its ofiicers, and 
by them executes its will. 

" We are reminded that the Governor of the Territory is the judge 
of the returns of the election of members of the Legislature, and 
upon those returns he issues his certificate. In reply we say, that the 
allegations are, in substance, that the returns were fraudulently made 
out by those who violently took possession of the polls ; that the Gov- 
ernor was imposed upon by these fraudulent returns ; and that certifi- 
cates were obtained from him by fraud. We have seen that the remis- 
sion of a fine obtained from the Executive by fraud, was set aside by 
a court ; and any other act of the Executive jjrocured by fraud would 
be as readily set aside. Such certificates would be a nullity, and 
would be so declared by the court. But a certificate of election makes 
only a privia facie case. It entitles a member to his seat when there 
is no contest, but it is never set up as a bar to an inquiry in a con- 
tested case. 

" The honorable gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Davis] warned us, 
in eloquent language, of the danger of usurping the prerogatives of 
the Executive, and deciding questions touching the Territory, which 
do not come within the jurisdiction of the House, and says that con- 
fusion and anarchy must be the result. Aye, sir ! confusion and 
anarchy ! What terms have the gentlemen to apply to the proceed- 
ings which took place in that unfortunate Territory, when the out- 
rages complained of were committed ? when the rights of the citizens 
were trodden under foot? when fraud and violence were successful? 
when the forms of law were shamelessly resorted to, to secure the 
fruits of invasion and conquest? when Tyranny, with iron heel, 
trampled Freedom in the dust ? How long shall we delay our action, 
and stifle inquiry, lest we might produce confusion and anarchy? 

" Let us examine the argument. It is, that this stupendous fraud 
is clothed in the forms of law, and rights have vested under it. That 
it is a question for the Executive, and beyond the limits of our power. 
This is urged in derogation of the universal law, that fraud taints 
every thing it touches. Sir, no lapse of time cures it ; no r'ghts 
grow out of it to the guilty parties ; no form sanctifies or shields 
it ; no villanies ever ripen into virtuous deeds. I would follow 
it, and make war upon it, wherever it may be found. When- 
ever it is alleged that there is a State or Territorial Government, 
that there is a decree of court or other act of the judiciary, or a pre- 



570 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

tended law, grounded in fraud, and the question comes fairly before 
this House, when it is involved in the right of a member to his seat, 
I would, in the. investigation, follow it through all its forms, and seek 
out all its hiding-places. I would tear away all such foundations, 
and whatever structure rested upon it might topple to the ground. 
Nothing that is valuable can suffer from such an investigation, while it 
is legitimately pursued. 

" It is not for me to impute or question motives. I do neither. 
But I am free to remark, that it appears like shrinking from an inves- 
tigation. I do not stand here to dictate to others, or to advise the 
course they should pursue ; but if the citizens of the State of Indiana 
were implicated in a charge of repeated acts of violence and fraud 
toward the citizens of a defenseless Territory, I would instantly 
demand the most thorough investigation. And how much more would 
I insist upon an inquiry, if it was charged that the people of Indiana 
had usurped the government of a defenseless Territory. The duty 
of this House would not be the less imperative to proceed with the 
inquiry, if I should stand in my place and resist every attempt toward 
an investigation. 

" I am satisfied that a full exposure of all the facts, by the means 
proposed by the committee, will restore harmony and prosperity to 
that part of our country." 



JOHN C. FEEMONT 571 

JOHN C. FREMONT. 

I BECAME partially acquainted with Col. John C. Fremont, at Wash- 
ington city, before his first exploring expedition to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. In person, Col. Fremont is about the medium bight, spare of 
flesh, but strong in bone and muscle ; hair black and parted in the 
center, falling carelessly in folds over his large head, to the shoulders ; 
eyes and eye-brows black, complexion dark and swarthy, large square 
forehead, mouth wide, good features, countenance stern, marking him 
as a man of talent, courage, firmness and untiring perseverance. I 
thought at the time I first saw him, and Lieut. Wilkes of the Naval 
Exploring Expedition, that I had seen no two men to whom I would 
so soon intrust the command of a perilous expedition, by sea or by 
land, as to these young officers in the army and navy. The subse- 
quent perilous explorations of Col. Fremont, have placed him among 
the very first of inland adventurous explorers, in modern or ancient 
times. 

It is not my purpose even to epitomize the reports and sketches that 
have reached us officially and otherwise, of the different explorations, 
perils and sufferings of Col. Fremont, these have long since been laid 
before the people by the press. I will, however, attach to this sketch, 
a few interesting extracts from his first report, premising that his trials 
and suffering had scarcely a beginning until his second exploring 
visit to the Pacific, when he was met by the mountain snows, want of 
provisions, severe mid-winter storms, death of companions, himself 
reduced by starvation to a skeleton. For these perils I must refer the 
reader to his own statements, which are too lengthy to find a place here. 

Col. Fremont and his explorations filled a large space in the eye 
of the reading public for years. He settled in the Territory of Cali- 
fornia while quite a young man, and was returned by that young 
State, after she was admitted into the Union, as one of her first Sena- 
tors to Congress, where he remained but a short time. While in 
California he purchased the quartz gold-bearing Mariposa tract, about 
which so much has been published. The prominent position of Col. 
Fremont in the public mind, his known talents, firmness and devotion 
to the Free-Soil party, standing in opposition to the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise line, and opposed to the extension of slavery, 
regardless of his Democratic antecedents, induced the Free-Soil Con- 
vention that met at Philadelphia, in 1856, to nominate him as their 
candidate for President. This nomination was made by delegates 
from the Free States, the Slave States refusing to take any part in the 



572 EAELY INDIANA TEIALS. 

Convention. It fell upon the public mind as entirely sectional. Mr. 
Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, 
the same year. At first the Southern delegates in convention pre- 
ferred Stephen A. Douglass, but ultimately came into the support of 
Mr. Buchanan, and he was nominated as the conservative candidate, 
holding in his hands the keys of the Union ; a man eminently quali- 
fied with age and long experience. The candidates were placed before 
the nation, the election was obviously to turn upon sectional grounds 
and principles, upon both sides. It was whether slavery should be 
extended without limitation, over all the Territories, at the will of 
the people of such Territories ; this was the sectional view of the 
South ; or whether Congress should circumscribe slavery, to the coun- 
try south of 36° 40' of latitude, the Missouri Compromise line. The 
North said Congressional limitation ; the South said no Congressional 
restriction ; each was favorable to its sectional institutions. The par- 
tisan cry was raised that each party was looking to a dissolution of 
the Union. I had frequently heard that sound before, to answer polit- 
ical ends, but I have never discovered any want of attachment to the 
Union, in either of the great parties that divide the people of the 
United States ; and I am far from believing, that any considerable 
portion of the people could be led to the perpetration of the suicidal 
act of dissolving or seceding from our Union. 

In this case it would be an unwarrantable assumption to presume 
that the patriotic States of New England, New York, Michigan, Ohio, 
and others, that supported Col. Fremont, were actuated by hostility to 
the Union, because there may have been a few in those States who 
have no special regard for it, and maintain higher law doctrines than 
the Constitution of the United States. In like manner, who can say 
that the Southern States, that gave Mr. Buchanan their united sup- 
port, were governed by hostility to the Union, because the State of 
South Carolina holds a few of the Barnwell Bhett school of seceders 
from the Union. 

I am happy to say, that after many years connection with the prom- 
inent men of the nation, and closely noticing the political movements, 
and the results of our general elections, I consider the American 
people sound to the core, on the question of the perpetuity of our 
glorious Union. The result of the election of Mr. Buchanan, was 
quietly acquiesced in. Mr. Buchanan as President, is administering 
the Government, at peace with all the world, while Col. Fremont occu- 
pies the high position of an American citizen, still in the summer of 
his life, honored and respected by all who know him. 



JOHN C. FEEMONT. 573 



"Washington, March 1st, 1843. 
" To Col. J. J. Abert, 

Chief of the Corps of Topographical Engineers : 

" Sir : Agreeably to your orders to explore and report upon the 
country between the frontiers of Missouri and the South Pass in the 
Rocky Mountains, and on the line of the Kansas and Great Platte 
rivers, I set out from Washington city on the 2d day of May, 1842, 
arrived at St. Louis, by way of New York, the 22d of May, where the 
necessary preparations were completed, and the expedition commenced. 
I proceeded in a steamboat to Chouteau's Landing, about 400 miles 
by water from St. Louis, and near the mouth of the Kansas river ; 
whence we proceeded twelve miles to Mr. Cyprian Chouteau's trading 
house, where we completed our final arrangements for the expedition. 

" We reached the ford of the Kansas, late in the afternoon of the 
14th, where the river was two hundred and thirty yards wide, and 
commenced immediately preparations for crossing. I had expected 
to find the river fordable, but it had been swollen by the late rains, 
and was sweeping by with an angry current, yellow and turbid as the 
Missouri. Up to this point, the road we had traveled was a remark- 
ably fine one, well beaten and level, the usual road of a prairie coun- 
try. By our route the ford was one hundred miles from the mouth 
of the Kansas river. Several mounted men led the way into the stream 
to swim across. The animals were driven in after them, and in a few 
minutes all reached the opposite bank in safety, with the exception of 
the oxen, which swam some distance down the river, and retui'ning to 
the right bank, were not got over until the next morning. In the 
meantime, the carts had been unloaded and dismantled, and an India- 
rubber boat, which I had brought with me for the survey of the Platte 
river, placed in the water. The boat was twenty feet long and five 
feet broad, and on it was placed the body and wheels of a cart, with 
the load belonging to it, and three men with paddles. 

buffaloes. 

" The air was keen the next morning at sunrise, the thermom- 
eter standing at 44°, and it was sufficiently cold to make our over- 
coats very comfortable. A few miles brought us into the midst of 
the buffaloes, swarming in immense numbers over the plains, where 
they had left scarcely a blade of grass standing. Mr. Preuss, who 
was sketching at a little distance in the rear, had at first noted them 
as large groves of timber. At the sight of such a mass of life, the 
traveler feels a strange emotion of grandeur. We had heard from a 



574 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



distance a dull and confused murmuring ; and when we came in view 
of their dark masses, there was not one among us who did not feel 
his heart beat quicker. It was the early part of the day, when the 
herds are feeding, and every where they were in motion. Here and 
there a huge old bull was rolling in the grass, and clouds of dust rose 
in the air from various parts of the bands, each the scene of some 
obstinate fight. Indians and buffaloes make the poetry and life of the 
prairie, and our camp was full of their exhilaration. In place of the 
quiet monotony of the march, relieved only by the cracking of the 
whip, and an ' avaiice done ! rnfant de garce ! ' shouts and songs 
resounded from every part of the line, and our evening camp was 
always the commencement of a feast, which terminated only with our 
departure on the following morning. 

" Jidi/ 1. — Along our road to-day, the prairie bottom was more ele- 
vated and dry, and the hills, which border the right side of the river, 
higher, and more broken and picturesque in the outline. The country 
too was better timbered. As we were riding quietly along the bank, 
a grand herd of buffaloes, some seven or eight hundred in number, 
came crowding up from the river, where they had been to drink, and 
commenced crossing the plain slowly, eating as they went. The wind 
was favorable, the coolness of the morning invited to fexereise, the 
ground was apparently good, and the distance across the prairie, two 
or three miles, gave us a fine opportunity to charge them before they 
could get among the river hills. It was too fine a prospect for a chase 
to be lost ; and, halting for a few moments, the hunters were brought 
up and saddled, and Kit Carson, Maxwell, and I, .■started together. 
They were now somewhat less than half a mile distant, and we rode 
easily along until within about three hundred yards, when a sudden 
agitation, a wavering in the band, and a galloping to and fro of some 
which were scattered along the skirts, gave us the intimation that we 
were discovered. We started together at a hand-gallop, riding steadily 
abreast of each other ; and here the interest of the chase became so 
engrossingly intense, that we were sensible to nothing else. We were 
now closing upon them rapidly, and the front of the mass were already 
in motion for the hills, and in a few seconds the movement had com- 
municated itself to the whole herd. A crowd of bulls, as usual, 
brought up the rear, and every now and then some of them faced 
about, and then dashed on after the band a short distance, and turned 
and looked again, as if more than half inclined to stand and fight. In 
a few moments, however, during which we had been quickening our 
pace, the rout was universal, and we were going over the ground like 
a hurricane. When at about thirty yards we gave the usual shout, the 



JOHN C. FREMONT. 575 

hunters' pas de cJuirge, and broke into the herd. We entered at the 
side, the mass giving way in every direction. In their heedless course 
many of the bulls, less active and less fleet than the cows, paying no 
attention to the ground, and occupied solely with the hunters, were 
precipitated to the earth with great force, rolling over and over with 
the violence of the shock, and hardly distinguishable in the dust. 
We separated on entering, each singling out his game. My horse was 
a trained hunter, famous in the West under the name of Proveau, and 
with his eyes flashing, and the foam flying from his mouth, sprang on 
after the cow, like a tiger. In a few moments he brought me along- 
side of her, and rising in the stirrups, I fired at the distance of a yard, 
the ball entering at the termination of the long hair, and passing near 
the heart. She fell headlong at the report of the gun ; and checking 
my horse, I looked around for my companions. At a little distance 
Kit was on the ground, engaged in tying his horse to the horns of a 
cow he was preparing to cut up. Among the scattered bands, at some 
distance below, I caught a glimpse of Maxwell ; and while I was look- 
ing, a light wreath of white smoke curled away from his gun, which I 
was too far from to hear the report. Nearer, and between me and the 
hills, toward which they were directing their course, was the body 
of the herd, and giving my horse the rein, we dashed after them. 
A thick cloud of dust hung upon their rear, which filled my mouth 
and eyes, and nearly smothered me. In the midst of this I could see 
nothing, and the bufi'aloes were not distinguishable until within thirty 
feet. They crowded together, more densely still, as I came upon 
them, and rushed along in such a compact body, that I could not 
obtain an entrance — the horse almost leaping upon them. In a few 
moments the mass divided to the right and left, their horns clattering 
with a noise heard above every thing else, and my horse darted into 
the opening. Five or six bulls charged on us as we dashed along the 
line, but were left far behind, and singling out a cow, I gave her my 
fire, but struck too high. She gave a tremendous leap, and scoured 
on swifter than before. I reined up my horse, and the band swept on 
like a torrent, and left the place quiet and clear. 

" Jiili/ 4. — As we were riding slowly along this afternoon, clouds 
of dust, in the ravines to the right, suddenly attracted our attention, 
and in a few minutes column after column of buftaloes came galloping 
down, making directly to the river. By the time the leading herds 
had reached the water, the prairie was darkened with the dense masses. 
Immediately before us, when the bands first came down into the val- 
ley, stretched an unbroken line, the head of which was lost among the 
river hills on the opposite side ; and still they poured down from the 



576 EAELY INDIAT^A TRIALS. 

ridge on our rigkt. From liill to hill the prairie bottom was not less 
than two miles wide, and allowing the animals to be ten feet apart, 
and only ten in a line, there were already eleven thousand in view. 
Some idea may thus be formed of their number, when they had occu- 
pied the whole plain. In a short time they surrounded us on every 
side, extending for several miles in the rear and forward, as far as the 
eye could reach, leaving around us, as we advanced, an open space of 
only two or three hundred yards. This movement of the buffaloes 
indicated to us the presence of Indians on the North Fork. 

"I halted earlier than usual, about forty miles from the junction, 
and all hands were soon busily engaged in preparing a feast to cele- 
brate the day. The kindness of our friends at St. Louis had provided 
us with a large supply of excellent preserves, and rich fruit cake ; and 
when these were added to a maccaroni soup, and variously prepared 
dishes of the choicest buffalo meat, crowned with a cup of coffee, and 
enjoyed with prairie appetite, we felt, as we sat in barbaric luxury 
around our smoking supper on the grass, a greater sensation of enjoy- 
ment than the Roman epicure at his perfumed feast. But most of all 
it seemed to please our Indian friends, who, in the unrestrained enjoy- 
ment of the moment, demanded to know if our ' Medicine days came 
often.' No restraint was exercised at the hospitable board, and, to 
the great delight of his elders, one young Indian had made himself 
extremely drunk. 

" July 7. — At our camp this morning, at 6 o'clock, the barometer 
was at 26.183, thermometer ()9°, and clear, with a light wind from 
the South-West. The past night had been squally, with high winds, 
and occasionally a few drops of rain. Our cooking did not occupy 
much time, and we left camp early. Nothing of interest occurred 
during the morning. The same dreary barrenness except that a hard, 
marly clay had replaced the sandy soil. Buffaloes absolutely covered 
the plain on both sides the river, and whenever we ascended the hills, 
scattered herds gave life to the view in every direction. A small drove 
of wild horses made their appearance on tho low river-bottoms, a mile 
or two to the left, and I sent off one of the Indians (who seemed very 
eager to catch one), on my led horse, a spirited and fleet animal. The 
savage manocuvered a little to get the wind of the horses, in which he 
succeeded, approaching within a hundred yards without being dis- 
covered. The chase for a few minutes was animated and interesting. 
My hunter easily overtook and passed the hindermost of the wild 
drove, which the Indian did not attempt to lasso ; all his efforts being 
directed to the capture of the leader. But the strength of the horse, 
weakened by the insufficient nourishment of grass, failed in a race, 



JOHN C. FREMONT. 577 

and all the drove escaped. We halted at noon on the bank of the 
river, the barometer at that time being 26.192, and the thermometer 
103°, with a light air from the South, and clear weather. 

" July 9. — This morning we caught the first faint glimpse of the 
Rocky Mountains, about sixty miles distant. Though a tolerably 
bright day, there was a slight mist, and we were just able to discern 
the snowy summit of ' Long's peak ' Qes deux oreillcs of the Canad- 
ians), showing like a small cloud near the horizon. I found it easily 
distinguishable, there being a perceptible diflference in its appearance 
from the white clouds that were floating about the sky." 

INDIAN SPEECH. 

"After reading this, I mentioned its purport to my companions, and 
seeing that all were fully possessed of its contents, one of the Indians 
rose up, and having first shaken hands with me, spoke as follows : 

" ' You have come among us at a bad time. Some of our people 
have been killed, and our young men, who are gone to the mountains-. 
are eager to avenge the blood of their relations, which has been shed 
by the whites. Our young men are bad, and if they meet you they 
will believe that you are carrying goods and ammunition to their ene- 
mies, and will fire upon you. You have told us that this will make 
war. We know that our great father has many soldiers and big guns, 
and we are anxious to have our lives. We love the whites, and are 
desirous of peace. Thinking of all these things, we have determined 
to keep you here until our warriors return. We are glad to see you 
among us. Our father is rich, and we expected that you would have 
brought presents to us — horses, and guns, and blankets. But we are 
glad to see you. We look upon your coming as the light which goes 
before the sun ; for you will tell our great father that you have seen 
us, and that we ai'e naked and poor, and have nothing to eat, and he 
will send us all these things.' He was followed by others to the same 
effect. 

REPLY. 

" The observations of the savage appeared reasonable, but I was 
aware that they had in view only the present object of detaining me, 
and were unwilling T should go further into the country. In reply, 
I asked them, through the interpretation of Mr. Boudean, to select 
two or three of their number to accompany us until we should meet 
their people ; they should spread their robes in my tent, and eat at 
my table, and on our return I would give them presents in reward of 
their services. They declined, saying that there were no young men 
left in the village, and they were too old to travel so many days on 
38 



578 EAKLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

horseback, and preferred now to smoke tlieir pipes in the lodge, and 
let the warriors go on the war path. Besides, they had no power over 
the young men, and were afraid to interfere with them. In my turn, 
I addressed them : ' You say that you love the whites ; why have you 
killed so many already this spring? You say that you love the 
whites, and are full of many expressions of friendship to us, but you 
are not willing to undergo the fatigue of a few days' ride to save our 
lives. We do not believe what you have said, and will not listen to 
you. Whatever a chief among us tells his soldiers to do is done. 
We are the soldiers of the great chief, your father. He has told us to 
come here and see this country, and all the Indians, his children. 
Why should we not go ? Before we came, we heard that you had 
killed his people, and ceased to be his children ; but we come among 
you peaceably, holding out our hands. Now, we find that the stories 
we heard are not lies, and that you are no longer his friends and 
children. We have thrown away our bodies, and will not turn back. 
When you told us that your young men would kill us, you did not 
know that our hearts were strong, and you did not see the rifles which 
my young men carry in their hands. We are few and you are many, 
and may kill us all; but there will be much crying in your vil- 
lages, for many of your young men will stay behind, and forget to 
return with your warriors from the mountains. Do you think that 
our great chief will let his soldiers die and forget to cover their 
graves ? Before the snows melt again, his warriors will sweep away 
your villages as the fire does the prairie in the autumn. See ! I have 
pulled down my white houses, and my people are ready ; when the sun 
is ten paces higher, we shall be on the march. If you have any thing 
to tell us, you will say it soon.' I broke up the conference, as I could 
do nothing with these people, and being resolved to pi'oceed, nothing 
was to be gained by delay." 

devil's gate. 
" Crossing the ridge of red sand-stone, and traversing the little 
prairie which lies to the southward of it, we made in the afternoon an 
excursion to a place which we have called the Hot Spring Gate. This 
place has much the appearance of a gate, by which the Platte passes 
through a ridge composed of a white and calcareous sandstone. The 
length of the passage is about four hundred yards, with a smooth 
green prairie on either side. Through this place the stream flows 
with a quiet current, unbroken by any rapid, and is about seventy 
yards wide between the walls, which rise perj^endicularly from the 
water. To that on the right bank, which is the lower, the barometer 
gave a bight of 360 feet." 



JOHN C. FREMONT. 679 

MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 

" We saw here numerous herds of mountain sheep, and frequently 
heard the volley of rattling stones which accompanied their rapid des- 
cent down the steep hills. This was the first place at which we had killed 
any of these animals ; and, in consequence of this circumstance, and 
of the abundance of these sheep or goats (for they are called by each 
name), we gave to our encampment the name of Goat Island. Their 
flesh is much esteemed by the hunters, and has very much the flavor 
of the Alleghany Mountain sheep. I have frequently seen the horns 
of this animal three feet long, and seventeen inches in circumference 
at the base, weighing eleven pounds. But two or three of these were 
killed by our party at this place, and of these the horns were small. 
The use of these horns seemed to be to protect the animal's head in 
pitching down precipices to avoid pursuing wolves — their only safety 
being in places where they can not be followed. The bones arc very 
strong and solid, the marrow occupying a very small portion of the 
bone in the leg, about the thickness of a rye straw. The hair is 
short, resembling the winter color of our common deer, which it 
nearly approaches in size and appearance. Except in the horns, it 
has no resemblance whatever to the goat." 

SOUTH PASS. 

" The afternoon was cloudy, with squalls of rain ; but the weather 
became fine at sunset, when we again encamped on the Sweet Water, 
within a few miles of the South Pass. The country over which we 
have passed to-day consists principally of a compact, mica slate, 
which crops out on all the ridges, making the uplands very rocky and 
slaty." 

MOUNTAIN VIEW. 

" Early in the morning we resumed our journey, the weather still 
cloudy, with occasional rain. Our general course was west, as I had 
determined to cross the dividing ridge by a bridle path among the 
broken country, more immediately at the foot of the mountains, and 
return by the wagon road, two and a half miles to the south of the 
point where the trail crosses. About six miles from our encampment, 
brought us to the summit. The ascent had been so gradual that, with 
all the intimate knowledge possessed by Carson, who had made this 
country his home for seventeen years, we were obliged to watch very 
closely to find the place at which we had reached the ciilminating 
point. This was between two low hills, rising on either hand fifty or 
sixty feet. When I looked back at them from the foot of the imrae- 



580 EAKLY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

diate slope on the western plain, their summits appeared to be about 
one hundred and twenty feet above. From the impression on my 
mind at this time, and subsequently on our return, I should compare 
the elevation which we surmounted immediately at the pass, to the 
ascent of Capitol Hill from the Avenue, at Washington. It is diffi- 
cult for me to fix positi\»ely the breadth of this pass. From the 
broken ground where it commences, at the foot of the Wind River 
chain, the view to the south-east is over a champaign country, broken 
at the distance of nineteen miles by the Table Eock ; which, with the 
other isolated hills in its vicinity, seems to stand on a comparative 
plain. This I judge to be its termination, the ridge recovering its 
character with the Table Rock. It will be seen that it in no manner 
resembles the places to which the term is commonly applied — nothing 
of the gorge-like character and winding ascents of the Alleghany 
passes in America ; nothing of the great St. Bernard and Simplon 
passes in Europe. Approaching it from the mouth of the Sweet 
Water, a sandy plain, one hundred and twenty miles long, conducts 
by a gradual and regular ascent, to the summit, about seven thousand 
feet above the sea ; and the traveler, without being reminded of any 
change by toilsome ascents, suddenly finds himself on the waters which 
flow to the Pacific Ocean. By the route we had traveled, the distance 
from Fort Laramie is three hundred and twenty miles, or nine hun- 
dred and fifty from the mouth of the Kansas." 

THE NATIONAL FLAG. 

"We managed to get our mules up to a little bench, about a hun- 
dred feet above the lakes, where there was a patch of good grass, and 
turned them loose to graze. During our rough ride to this place, 
they had exhibited a wonderful sure-footedness. Parts of the defile 
were filled with angular, sharp fragments of rock, three or four, and 
eight or ten feet cube ; and among these they had worked their way, 
leaping from one narrow point to another, rarely making a false step, 
and giving us no occasion to dismount. Having divested ourselves 
of every unnecessary incumbrance, we commenced the ascent. This 
time like experienced travelers, we did not press ourselves, but climbed 
leisurely, sitting down so soon as we found breath beginning to fail. 
At intervals we reached places where a number of springs gushed 
from the rock^, and about 1800 feet above the lakes, came to the snow 
line. From this point our progress was uninterrupted climbing. Hi- 
therto, I had worn a pair of thick moccasins, with soles of ^Jar Jlt'che^ 
but here I put on a light thin pair, which I had brought for the pur- 
pose, as now the use of our toes became necessary to a further advance. 



JOHN C. FREMONT. 581 

I availed myself of a sort of cone of the mountain, which stood against 
the wall like a buttress, and which the wind and the solar radiation, 
joined to the steepness of the smooth rock, had kept almost entirely 
free from snow. Up this I made my way rapidly. 

" Our cautious method of advancing in the outset, had spared my 
strength ; and, with the exception of a slight disposition to headache, 
I felt no remains of yesterday's illness. In a few minutes we reached 
a point where the buttress was over-hanging, and there was no other 
way of surmounting the difficulty than by passing around one side of 
it, which was the face of a vertical precipice of several hundred feet. 
Putting hands and feet in the crevices between the blocks, I succeeded 
in getting over it, and when I reached the top, found my companions 
in a small valley below. Descending to them, we continued climbing, 
and in a short time reached the crest. I sprang upon the summit, 
and another step would have precipitated me into an immense snow- 
field, 500 feet below. To the edge of this field was a sheer icy preci- 
pice ; and then, with a gradual fall, the field sloped off for ajjout a mile, 
until it struck the foot of the lower ridge. I stood upon a narrow 
crest, about three feet in width, with an inclination of about 20° N., 
51° E. As soon as I had gratified the first feeling of curiosity, I 
descended, and each man ascended in his turn, for I would only allow 
one at a time to mount the unstable and precarious slab, which it 
seemed a breath would hurl into the abyss below. 

" We mounted the barometer in the snow of the summit, and fixing 
a ramrod in a crevice, unfurled the National Flag to wave in the breeze 
where never flag waved before. During our morning's ascent, wc had 
met no sign of animal life, except the small sparrow-like bird already 
mentioned. A stillness the most profound, and a terrible solitude 
forced themselves constantly on the mind as the great features of the 
place. Here on the summit where the stillness was absolute, unbroken 
by any sound, and the solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond 
the region of animated life ; but while we were sitting on the rock, a 
solitary bee (the humble bee), came winging his flight from the east- 
ern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men." 



682 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

JEREMIAH SMITH. 

I CAN NOT pass by the subject of this sketch, with whom I have long 
been personally acquainted. Judge Smith was one of the early set- 
tlers of Randolph county. He received in early life a good common 
English education, which he improved after he entered upon the active 
duties of life. He was emphatically a self-made man, with a vigorous 
mind, a strong sound constitution, and untiring energy. He rose 
rapidly to a high stand at the bar, was placed upon the bench as 
president judge, of the Circuit Court, and served a full term, when he 
returned to the practice of his profession, in which he is actively and 
successfully engaged, in the vigor of manhood. Judge Smith, in per- 
son is large and corpulent, high broad forehead, full face, good fea- 
tures. As a speaker he makes no pretense to eloquence, but marches 
directly to the point in controversy, with all his might, throwing him- 
self bodily into the argument. The Judge has many years been an 
active member of the Christian church, and is now one of the trustees 
of the University at Indianapolis, and also president of the Cincin- 
nati, Union and Fort Wayne, and the Evansville, Indianapolis and 
Cleveland straight-line railroad companies. Still his indomitable 
energy and untiring perseverance seem to be equal to the labors he 
performs. Long may he live ; such men do much for their country, 
and can hardly be spared when the sands of life have run out. 



CALVIN FLETCHER. 

I FEAR my notice of the subject of this sketch, as connected with 
light anecdotes, may do injustice to his character as a man of the first 
standing among us, which I should regret. The notice I have taken 
of him was only intended to introduce him to the reader, as a young 
lawyer, filled with humorous fun and innocent amusement. I take back 
nothing I have said, and remark further, that the same vein of humor 
that coursed through the young lawyer, will be present with him, in 
despite of his efiorts to restrain it through life. Mr. Fletcher was one 
of the first settlers at Indianapolis, when there was few houses there, 
when the whole country around it was a wilderness. He was a remark- 
able man. He combined all the elements of an eifective pioneer in 
a new country — an iron constitution, clear and vigorous common - 
sense mind, an energy that never slumbered, integrity never questioned, 
a high conception of morality and religion, social qualities of the first 
order, a devoted friend to the cause of education, a good lawyer, and 
a forcible speaker. It was not strange that he should have occupied 
a prominent position ; whether at the bar, in the Senate of the State, 



JOHN BEARD — JOHN HAGER. 583 

president of the Bank, in the Sabbath school, or the free common 
schools, in the church or in the extended field of agriculture, he had 
no compeer. It may be said truly, that Calvin Fletcher has done 
more to stamp society at Indianapolis, with the true principles of civ- 
ilization and Christianity, than any other man living or dead. He is 
now enjoying fine health, only a little past the meridian of life. His 
sons, like their father, possess high qualities, and must like him be 
distino;uished. 



JOHN BEARD, 



While I am sketching a few more of the pioneers of Indiana, 1 
can not pass my friend, John Beard, of Montgomery. I knew him 
in -early days, as well as his father before him. He was of the class 
of men in a new country called useful. Mr. Beard made no show 
nor parade. He was plain, practical, sensible, with a strong common- 
sense mind, and a clear judgment. His opinions had great weight 
wherever he was placed. He rose by his native powers, without the 
benefit of an early education, to the Senate of the State, where he 
stood for years among the very first. He held the office of Receiver 
under the Grovernment for many years, and discharged its duties to 
the entire satisfaction of the Government. He still lives to enjoy the 
remainder of his well-spent life. I love to speak of these plain, 
honest pioneers of the West. Such men are truly the bone and 
sinew of all new countries. 



JOHN HAGER. 

I SHOULD do injustice to my feelings, were I to pass unnoticed my 
early, devoted friend, John Hager, of Hancock. I knew him long, I 
knew him well. As I was traveling one rainy day on horseback through 
the woods, between Indianapolis and Connersville, near where Green- 
field now stands, I heard a loud voice before me, some half a mile oflP. 
My horse was wading through the mud and water, up to the saddle - 
ckirts. I moved slowly on, until I met John Hager driving a team 
of four oxen, hauling a heavy load of merchandise, or store-goods, as 
he called it, from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, then in the woods. He 
•had been fifteen days on the road, and it would take him three days 
more to get throvigh. He stopped his oxen a few moments, but said 
he must move on, as they would be anxiously looking for him at 
Indianapolis, as they were nearly out of powder and lead when he 



584 EARLY INDIANA. TEIALS. 

left, and they could get none until lie got there, as his was the only 
wagon that could get through the mud between Cincinnati and Indi- 
anapolis, and it was just as much as he could do. He hallooed to the 
oxen, plied the lash of his long whip, and the team moved on at the 
rate of a mile an hour — the wheels up to the hubs in mud. 

Such was John Hager and his teams, carrying the whole commerce 
between the Queen City and the Railroad City of the West, at that 
early day. But the end of my early friend was not yet ; the roads 
through the woods were opened, competition soon rendered his busi- 
ness precarious ; he sold his team, left the business, turned his atten- 
tion to politics, his voice sounded from many a stump, the people tri- 
umphantly elected him successively Associate Judge and Clerk of the 
Circuit Court, and he died years ago, at a good old age, respected by 
all who knew him. 



ANDKEW WYLIE, L. L. D., ETC. 585 



ANDREW WYLIE, L. L. D. 

Among tlie eminent divines, connected with our highest literary 
institutions, stood Andrew Wylie, many years president of the State 
University at Bloomington. Whether we contemplate Dr. Wylie as 
an Episcopal minister or as president of the University, he occupies 
the same elevated position among his coteniporaries. The mind of 
Dr. Wylie was of the first order, trained and polished by a classical 
education. Nature had done her part, and education had reared her 
towering superstructure in his vigorous mind. Dr. Wylie was an 
intellectual giant, with few equals, and no superiors, within the sphere 
of his positions. I knew him well, and it affords me a most solemn 
gratification to pay this short tribute to his memory. He was 
remarkably fine-looking, above the common hight, portly and com- 
manding, capacious chest, large head, hair silvered over when first I 
saw him, broad high forehead, wide mouth, full face, prominent fea- 
tures. His style was plain, his elocution fluent and vigorous, at times 
beautiful, eloquent, sublime. As president of the University, he had 
his trials, but he rose triumphantly over his difficulties. His good 
common-sense, his enlarged, cultivated mind, the purity of his Chris- 
tian life and character disarmed his temporary opponents, and 
endeared him to those who knew him best. The sun of Dr. Wylie 
went down without a cloud at midday. He was taken from us in the 
the meridian of life, leaving many friends behind, among whom I 
desire to be numbered. 



REV. PHINEAS D. GURLEY. 

At the time the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was pastor of the 
Second Presbyterian Church at Indianapolis, the Rev. Phineas D. 
Gurley, now of the city of Washington, was pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church. I had the pleasure frequently of hearing these 
eminent divines. I have already sketched Mr. Beecher, and do not 
feel justified in passing Mr. Gurley without a brief notice. There 
was a great contrast between these distinguished divines, each was 
peculiar to himself Mr. Gurley in person, was large, portly, and 
commanding, not only good-looking but handsome, black hair, dark 
eyes, large head, capacious brain. He was a man of a high order of 
talent ; not brilliant, but sound and practical. As a preacher, he was 
always listened to with deep interest by his congregation. He 
announced his text in a solemn tone of voice ; the object of his 
whole sermon seemed to be to produce serious feelings in the congre- 



586 EARLY INDIAIS^A TRIALS. 

gation. I scarcely ever heard a man more highly gifted in that kind 
of preaching, that makes the congregation think and feel, than Mr. 
Gurley. He seemed fully impressed with the responsibility of his 
position as a gospel minister, and he labored his text to that end. I 
shall ever feel that the capital of the State needed just two such men 
as Mr. Grurley and Mr. Beecher ; though differing so widely in person 
and style of preaching, each was calculated to do great good in his 
Church. Both left us for a wider field of usefulness, and now have 
large congregations in their respective Churches. 



ELDER JOHN O'KANE. 

The subject of this sketch was one of my early neighbors and friends 
in the Whitewater Valley. He was then, as now, an able minister 
in the Christian church, preaching by day, and by night, with great 
power, throughout the country. I knew Mr. O'Kane well. I have 
often heard him preach, and have thought that he had few superiors 
as a strong doctrinal sermonizer. He always preached from the Scrip- 
tures, never from himself. As a speaker, Mr. O'Kane was clear, 
plain, strong, emphatic : with a voice loud, full-toned and well trained, 
always good, at times elocjuent. His person was tall and command 
ing, full six feet in hight, hair dark, capacious forehead, wide mouth, 
prominent features. He had worn his rather delicate body almost 
out, by his great efforts in the field of his labors some years ago, but 
the last time I saw him he was quite well again, and was laboring in 
connection with the North Western Christian University at Indiana- 
polis, a most valuable literary institution. 



EBENEZER SHARPE. 

Among the first settlers of the capital was Ebenezer Sharpe. the 
father of Thomas H. Sharpe, and James M'Cord Sharpe now of the city. 
He was one of the purest men I ever knew; an elder in the Presbyter- 
ian church, a devoted friend to the Sabbath school, he threw the whole 
weight of his influence into the scale of education, morality, and reli- 
gion. Mr. Sharpe for many years faithfully discharged the dvxties of 
Agent of Indianapolis, and retired with clear hands from large mone- 
tary transactions connected with the city ; such men can always be 
referred to, by their friends, with pleasure. He died at a good old age. 
and was gathered like a ripe sheaf into the garner of his Father. 



DR. ISAAC COE — JAMES BLAKE. 587 

DR. ISAAC COE. 

The first time I attended court at Indianapolis I was introduced to 
the subject of this sketch. The capital was then in the woods. We 
walked together over the town plat through the brush as well as we 
could. The Dr. was sanguine that the town would some day contain 
five thousand inhabitants. I laughed at him. Cincinnati at that time 
only contained eight hundred. The Dr. was a colaborer with Mr. 
Sharpe, in the cause of education, morality, and religion ; an elder in 
the Presbyterian church, and a leader of the Sabbath schools. The 
tall figure of Dr. Coe, with his snow-white head, will long be cherished 
and remembered by the citizens of Indianapolis ; perhaps few men did 
so much as the Dr. to form society at Indianapolis, upon the true 
basis. He lived to see the capital contain a population of twenty 
thousand souls, to see twenty-five churches of the different denomina- 
tions, sustaining full congregations, and to see twenty-five hundred 
Sabbath-school scholars marching to the grove on the birth-day of our 
Independence. At a good old age Dr. Coe left us, to reap his reward 
for an active and well-spent life. 



JAMES BLAKE. 

Whenever I take my walk through the streets of Indianapolis, I 
have the pleasure of seeing the manly form of James Blake, one of the 
early settlers at the capital. I became early acquainted with Mr. 
Blake. We were both from Pennsylvania. I had preceded him some 
years to the State, but he came early. Indiana has received into her 
bosom few such men as James Blake. With a strong common-sense 
mind, an energy that never tired, he took a strong hold of the work 
before him; believing in the doctrine that honest labor is honorable, he 
shunned no personal labor that was necessary to the success of his enter- 
prise. While he threw his strength of body and mind, into the field 
of improvement of the city, he did not forget the moral and religious 
culture of the minds of the rising generation. He was a strong sup- 
porter of the Sabbath, and common schools, an elder in the Presbyte- 
rian church. His presence was every where that he could promote 
the interest of the city, and the welmre of its youth. 

Of late years since Indianapolis has taken her position as a manufac- 
turing and commercial city, Mr. Blake has efficiently discharged the 
duties of president of the Board of Trade, devoting his time, talents, 
influence, to the prosperity of the capital of the State ; where I leave 
him, in fine health, with his locks as white as the driven snow. 



588 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 



JOHN BROUGH. 

I CAN not pass by John Brough, the great raih-oad king, long a res- 
ident of Indiana, now of Clevehmd, Ohio. Soon after the railroad- 
mania took possession of the West, Mr. Brough became identified with 
the success of the Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, and while that 
road was without competition, he managed its aifairs so as to keep its 
stocks above par, but as the competition of our other roads arose one 
after another in quick succession, the business was diminished; the 
stock of the company fell rapidly, and ultimately was of mere nominal 
value. Mr. Brough resigned the presidency of the company, became 
president of the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Company, which was 
afterward united with the Bellefontaine and Indiana Road, giving a 
through line from Indianapolis to Crestline, Ohio, there to intersect 
the Cleveland and Pittsburg lines. Mr. Brough was elected to the 
presidency of the consolidated road, a position he now occupies. He 
is one of the most untiring, energetic men I ever knew; strong, com- 
mon-sense views; thoroughly acquainted with the management of rail- 
roads in all their minutiae, he is eminently qualified to fill his position. 
In person Mr. Brough is remarkable, once seen and you will never 
forget him ; about five feet eight in hight, large rotund bod}', unusually 
large head, with high retreating forehead, inclined to baldness, carna- 
tion-colored face, large fleshy double-chin hanging down his neck. 
Mr. Brough is in the middle of life, in fine health. I saw him a few 
days since looking at one of his engines. 



WILLARD CARPENTER. 

From the first settlements in Indiana wp to the present time she 
has had no citizen within her boundaries of greater energy of charac- 
ter than "Willard Carpenter, of Evansville. He is under the common 
hight, well built, large expanded chest, broad shoulders, large round 
head, high square forehead, thin sandy hair, light eyes and brows, 
good features, short neck, pleasant countenance. Mr. Carpenter was 
the leading man in procuring the grant of land from the United States 
to extend the "Wabash and Erie canal to Evansville, was the heaviest 
stockholder in the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad Company ; 
and at an after period the great moving spirit and heaviest stockholder 
in the Evansville, Indianapolis and Cleveland straight-line railroad com- 
pany, in which he became the principle contractor, and visited England, 
Ireland, Wales, France and Belgium, in the year 1857, on the business 
of the contractors; but owing to the depressed state of money matters 



WILLIAM ALLEN. 589 

there at tlie time, failed to make his negotiations, and returned home 
without any abatement of his energy or perseverance. The great change 
of the times, the depression of monetary affairs, the depreciation of 
railroad securities and stocks, the almost impossibility of building new 
roads, may even defeat the persevering efforts of Willard Carpenter, 
to build the great work in which he is engaged, and like thousands of 
other men, he may be ultimately embarrassed, in consequence of the 
enterprising character of his nature. But Willard Carpenter will long 
be remembered, honored and respected, as one of the enterprising 
citizens of our State. I saw him yesterday in fiiie he-alth, in the mer- 
idian of life. 

WILLIAM ALLEN. 

The subject of this sketch was the junior Senator from the State 
of Ohio. Thomas Morris and Benjamin Tappan were at different 
times his colleagues. I was qualified at the same time with Mr. Allen 
in March, 1837, and being from adjoining States, though differing in 
politics, we became personally intimate. Mr. Allen soon attained a 
prominent standing in the Senate. In person, he was tall and com- 
manding, features prominent, hair and eyes light, high retreating fore- 
head. As a debater, his manner, voice, action, were peculiarly his 
own. His voice was loud, full ■ toned, too loud I have sometimes 
thought for the Senate Chamber, but well adapted to the stump. His 
facetious colleague. Judge Tappan, on one occasion was asked by a 
eentleman from Ohio, whether a certain individual had sjone home. 
" Yes," said the Judge, " he started this morning ; but if you want to see 
him, get Mr. Allen to put his head out of the window, and call him 
back, he must be on this side of the mountains yet." Mr. Allen took 
part in most of the heavy debates in the Senate, and sustained him- 
self with signal ability. He had a strong leaning to Mr. Calhoun, 
and seldom differed from that distinguished Senator, especially on the 
tariff was he strongly anti-protective. I had the pleasure of seeing 
Mr Allen last October at Indianapolis in fine health, though his head 
was silvered over with age. 



690 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 

Late in the month of November, 1828, as I stepped aboard a 
steamer at Chestnut street wharf, Philadelphia, on my way to Congress, 
I noticed a group of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen walking aft to 
the ladies' cabin. Joel B. Sutherland, the representative of the Phil- 
adelphia District, remarked that one of them was ex-King Joseph 
Bonaparte, and proposed to introduce me. Of course I accepted the 
offer. He gave me his hand with a slight bow and pleasant smile. 
Turning to his son-in-law, Charles Louis Bonaparte, son of Louis, 
ex-King of Holland, Achille Murat, son of Joachim Murat, ex-King 
of Naples, who stood by him, he made me acquainted with them. It 
is said that Joseph Bonaparte, although a few inches taller than Na- 
poleon, looked more like him than any other of his brothers. His 
manners were full of ease, elegance and grace. He was very pleasant 
and quite disposed to free conversation, about five feet nine or ten 
inches high, heavy set, dark complexion, black eyes and hair, heavy 
brows, large round head, square high forehead. Charles Louis, his 
son-in-law, was rather taller, but not so thick ; black hair and eyes, 
dark complexion. Achille Murat strongly resembled Charles Louis, 
about the same size and complexion. I could distinguish them at 
once, both by their appearance and accent, to be foreigners. 

We passed on together to New Castle, crossed the State of Delaware 
in stages to Frenchtown, and there took the steamer to Baltimore, 
where we parted. I had a most interesting conversation with all these 
distinguished men, much of which I distinctly recollect, and may 
briefly state before this sketch closes. 

I looked upon the group at the time with deep interest. I had just 
finished reading the French Kevolution, and the incidents of the 
Bonaparte dynasty, and now the elder brother of Napoleon, with two 
of his nephews, stood before me. I looked upon Joseph Bonaparte 
not merely as the ex-King of Naples and of Spain, but as the brother 
of the Great Napoleon, whom I had seen in the history of his times, 
rise from a poor boy, at the military school at Brienne, to the greatest 
monarch on earth, shaking the whole civilized world, causing the 
kings of the old world to tremble on their thrones, and dispensing 
crowns to his family at pleasure. I had seen him at Notre Dame, at 
the Bridge of Lodi, the Battle of Lonato, the Pyramids, Austerlitz, 
Marengo, Jena, Montmail, Aboukir, Areola, Eckmuhl ; I had seen 
his legions crossing the frozen Alps, and pouring themselves upon the 
plains of Italy j I had seen the Bourbon dynasty at his feet at one 
moment, at the next he was a captive on the sea-girt Isle of Elba. 
With a few followers, he escapes, lands in France, and marches upon 



JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 591 

Paris. The army of the Bourbons rush to his standard, bearing aloft 
the tri-colors and the eagle. The Bourbons fly from the Tuilleries. 
He takes the fallen reins, ascends the throne of empire, and again 
holds the destinies of France. I had read a thrilling account of his 
fatal march upon Moscow ; had seen in imagination that great city in 
flames, and the French army retreating. The battle of Waterloo, 
where he met single-handed the combined army of the allies, with Wel- 
lington and Blucher in command, where his eagles trailed in the dust, 
was before me, and his sun began to decline. I had followed him to 
St. Helena, the royal captive of the Allies ; had seen his sun set at 
Longwood in the tomb, not as Lord Byron says, " without one parting 
ray," but leaving ten thousand brilliant rays behind. 

While I looked upon Joseph Bonaparte, as the elder brother of 
Napoleon, and the strongest living image of his person, I did not 
forget that I had before me a man who had risen like his brother, 
from an humble origin, to wear the crown of Naples, and of Spain. 
As my mind glanced over the incidents of his eventful life, I thought 
I could sec his character stamped upon his countenance. I had seen 
him in the council of Five Hundred, as envoy to Rome, a member 
of the Council of State, a commissioner to treat with the United 
States, to treat with Great Britain at Amiens ; at the head of his reg- 
iment at the camp of Boulogne, refusing the crown of Lombardy ; at 
the head of forty thousand French troops at the surrender of Capua; 
triumphantly entering Naples, and becoming King ; in Sorrentum at 
the house of Tasso. He leaves Naples, enters Madrid and becomes 
King of Spain. He defeated the Spanish forces at the foot of the 
Sierra Morena ; at the battle of Salamanca at the head of 100,000 
men ; at Vittoria attacked by the combined armies under the Duke 
of Wellington ; he returns to Paris ; surrenders the crown of Spain. 
He joins Napoleon after his return from Elba. As a Prince of France 
he takes his seat in the House of Peers. He embarks from Bor- 
deaux in an American vessel and lands in New York ; fixes his resi- 
dence at Bordentown, on the Delaware river, between Philadelphia and 
Trenton, with, a large attendance of servants, who were warmly 
attachedjo his person. I had seen his mansion in the midst of the 
forest of shade trees that surrounded it. It was consumed by fire in 
the year 1820, but was afterward rebuilt in a much plainer and less 
costly style. He was tendered the crown of Mexico, but rejected it. 
He returned to France, and died in Florence in 1844. Such was 
Joseph Bonaparte with whom I was conversing, and such the associa- 
tions that filled my mind. 

We crossed the State .of Delaware from New Castle to Frenchtown 



592 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

in separate coaches, but joined again. In conversation, as the steamer 
was passing down Elk River to the Chesapeake Bay, he spoke in high 
terms of our Washington, and eulogized our Constitution as a work 
of consummate wisdom. I asked him if he thought the Bourbon 
dynasty could long hold the reins of power in France. He said, " No, 
they are unpopular with the masses ; they were put there by the for- 
eign powers, and not by the French people, and whenever the exter- 
nal pressure is removed, they must be driven from power. The Bon- 
aparte dynasty must come into power again in some member of the 
family — most probably the son of Napoleon." I spoke of the weakness 
of the monarchical governments of Europe, liable to be overthrown 
by revolution in a day. He said " they were the only governments 
suited to the people of Europe; the only kind of governments that 
they would long submit to. France tried a republican government, 
but it proved a signal failure. Rome once enjoyed at least the shadow 
of the idea, but never the substance. Your government as yet works 
well. You are the only people on earth that have virtue and intelli- 
gence enough to maintain a republican form of government. But 
have you been fully tried? Your Revolutionary struggle held you 
together in a common cause. Your Washington was not only a 
patriot, but his love of the principles of your Government was such 
that he voluntarily laid down the power that he could have retained, 
and seated himself permanently on the throne of America." I replied, 
" I agree with you that it requires a high degree of virtue, intelli- 
gence, and love of country in the masses, to sustain and carry on our 
Government, and it may be true, that the people of France, like those 
of Rome, were not prepared for a representative government like ours, 
but I differ entirely from your remarks in relation to the power our 
Washington could have exercised, had he felt so disposed. I am 
unwilling to believe that any one man, at the period of our Revolu- 
tion, could have so far smothered the spirit of liberty, that caused the 
Revolution, as to place on his head' a crown. The idea does injustice 
to the people of the United States." He spoke enthusiastically of 
the French empire while Napoleon reigned. He said it was the 
strongest government the world ever saw, and the most beneficial to 
the people. I replied that " I could not agree with him ; that it was 
a child of revolution and blood, and was only sustained by arms ; 
that our Government sprang from the people, and was upheld by their 
will, as expressed at the ballot-box." I can recollect but a few ques- 
tions touched in our conversation, that lasted for hours, in which 
Charles Louis, and Achille Murat took part occasionally. The boat 
struck the wharf at Baltimore, we shook hands and parted. 



CLOSE OF THE WHIG CAUCUS. 593 



CLOSE OF THE WHIG CAUCUS. 

It is known tliat each of the parties iu Congress has, since the 
organization of the Government, held night meetings, at which the 
members of the party alone attend. At these meetings the policy of 
the party, and the measures to be adopted in open session are fully 
discussed, with closed doors. When a result is come to, each member 
stands committed to the measure in open session — hence the united 
vote of the party for, and against any given proposition. At the 
called session, in 1841, the Whig party became the dominant party, 
and, as such, took the initiative, in both branches of Congress, of all 
important measures. President Harrison had deceased, and John 
Tyler had been Constitutionally elevated to the executive chair ; 
strong hopes were entertained by the leaders of the Whigs, in Con- 
gress, that Mr. Tyler would unite with them in carrying into effect the 
measures upon which the party had come into power. How they 
were disappointed I have already stated in my sketch of John Tyler. 
Following in the custom of the party, the Whig Senators met in the 
room of the Vice-President, one evening early in the extra session, 
and organized by the choice of the Hon. Nathan F. Dixon, of Pihode 
Island, chairman. The meeting was full, every Whig Senator there. 
Mr. Dixon took the chair ; he was a venerable-looking man, of the 
old school of gentlemen ; head as white as a snow-bank, long white 
cue hanging down to his waist, high forehead, large nose, wide 
mouth, dark grey eyes covered by glasses, black breeches, white silk 
stockings, white vest, ruffled shirt, black coat. Mr. Dixon, as a pre- 
siding officer, at once adopted the idea, that each Senator was bound 
to keep himself in order, and if he did not, the dignity of the chair 
would not permit him to interfere. The debates, therefore, at times 
assumed a personal character not very becoming in brethren of the 
same political party. Some of the finest speeches I have ever heard 
from Mr. Clay, Mr. Rives, Mr. Southard, Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Davis, 
Mr. Choate, Mr. Preston, Mr. Simmons, and many other Senators, I 
have heard in the Whig caucus. Time rolled on, meeting after meet- 
ing was held, nightly ; measure after measure, vote after vote resolved 
upon, and carried out in open session. At length the night had come 
for the close of the caucus. I distinctly recollect that night; it was 
dark and rainy. The Whig Senators were there. Mr. Dixon took 
the chair early. Every thing around us looked like the weather and 
the night, dark and gloomy. Our hopes had been blasted ; President 
Tyler had deceived us ; our triumphant victory had been turned 
into ashes in our mouths ; we were about to part, with no cheering 
3P 



594 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

prospects. No new measure was to be introduced ; we had met to take 
a parting leave of each other. All was silent, when the tall and majes- 
tic form of Henry Clay was seen rising in the west end of the room ; 
all eyes were upon him ; he wore a bewitching smile upon his coun- 
tenance. He addressed the Chair in a voice that indicated at once 
that he was not about delivering a dolorous address, adding to 
our gloomy feelings. With his peculiar look and tone of voice, he 
remarked : " Mr. Chairman, this is a dark night. There is no moon, 
and the little stars are slumbering in their beds, behind the dark 
canopy that is spread over the heavens. This is not the first time that 
the heavenly lights have been obscured, and the world kept in tempo- 
rary darkness. Is this emblematic of our party ? It may be so ; but 
not of our principles. We, Senators, will soon pass away, but our 
principles will live while our glorious Union shall exist. Let our 
hearts be cheerful. Let our minds look through the temporary clouds 
that overspread the heavens, and see the sun there, as in mid-day, 
shining upon our principles, fixed above like planets in the firmament. 
They may be obscured for a time by the cry of the demagogue, by the 
political treason of those we have cherished in our bosoms — but they 
must and will prevail in the end. The American people will always 
be divided between political parties ; and leaders may direct the 
masses, for a time, to measures opposed to their true interest, but in 
the end the truth of experience will prevail, and justice will be done 
to the memory of those who have stood firm, as the friends of the peo- 
ple. My friends, we have done our duty. We have maintained the 
true policy of the Government. Our policy has been arrested by an 
Executive that we brought into power. i\.rnold escaped to England, 
after his treason was detected. Andre was executed. Tyler is on his 
way to the Democratic camp. They may give him lodgings in some 
out-house, but they never will trust him. He will stand here, like 
Arnold in England, a monument of his own perfidy and disgrace. 

" We are soon to separate. We go to our constituents to tell them 
the story of their wrongs. Let us part with light and not desponding 
hearts. The sun sets at night under the western horizon, he is 
obscured by the revolution of the earth, but in the morn he rises in 
all his majesty in the east ; so with our principles. I repeat, they 
may seem to have set, but like the sun they will rise again, warm, and 
fructify the United States. We must have for America, an American 
policy — our people are entitled to the protection and benefits of the 
Government under which they live. The policy of Europe is not 
suited to our people ; the doctrines of free-trade preached, but never 
practiced, by other nations, may do for demagogues to talk about, but 



CLOSE OF THE WHIG CAUCUS. 595 

their effects are to break down our manufoctures, paralyze the industry 
of the people, and drain our country of the precious metals. The 
currency question is of the highest importance to every industrial 
interest; without a sound currency there can be no safe, just reward to 
the industry of the country. I was at one time opposed to the Bank 
of the United States, it was afterward chartered, I saw and experi- 
enced the benefits of its operations, — such an institution alone, can give 
a safe circulating paper medium, of uniform value in every part of 
the nation. If we use a paper currency at all, that is the kind of 
paper that we want, the local banks may give a local paper circulation, 
but they can not furnish a currency of extended uniformity of value. 
My conviction is confirmed by long observation and experience, that 
our principles, are right for the best interest for ihe American people 
and should prevail. 

" Mr. Chairman, before parting, I wish to say a word gratulatory to 
yourself, as to the presiding officer of the Whig caucus. You took the 
chair with evident distrust of your ability to discharge its high and 
important duties. Night after night we have looked upon your good- 
natured, gentlemanly countenance ; we have seen with high gratifica- 
tion, the very able and impartial manner in which you have discharged 
your duty, and especially the manner in which you have, by a single 
look, kept order at our meetings ; the most excited, the most boister- 
ous, has been quieted at once, and brought into lamb-like docility. 
Your remarkable qualifications for the chair, the astonishing manner 
in which you have exercised them, has been a theme of universal 
commendation by every member of the caucus, and could you have 
been seen while presiding, by the whole civilized world, Europe, Asia, 
Africa and Oceanica would have raised a united voice in your praise. 
Gentlemen, one and all, permit me to bid you an affectionate fare- 
well ! " and took his seat amid great applause. 

Mr. Dixon at once responded, with inimitable humor: "Gentle- 
men, I have heard with infinite delight the remarks of the Senator 
from Kentucky, and more especially those he has been pleased to 
address directly to myself, so just and so true. I have been fully 
aware for some time, that I never had but one equal as a presiding 
officer, and he was the Senator from Kentucky himself, when he pre- 
sided over the House of Eepresentatives ; others might make the 
Senator an exception, but to be entirely candid, I can not; I believe 
T am greatly bis superior, especially in keeping order. You will all 
bear me witness, with what promptness, judgment, and energy, I have 
at all times interfered to keep order among the most disorderly body 
that was ever assembled. The Senator from Kentucky at one time 



o96 EAELY IXDIAJfA TEIALS. 

during his agldress, looked as if lie was not in full earnest ; but when 
you are all as well acquainted with the Senator as I am, you will give 
him full credit for sincerity, for any remarks he may make before ten 
o'clock at night, after that there may be some doubts." He closed 
amid bursts of applause from all parts of the room. Other Senators 
followed with eloquent remarks. At twelve o'clock the caucus was 
adjourned sine die ; we shook a parting hand and separated for our 
boarding-houses. The next morning found us on our way to our 
homes, in the different sections of the United States. 



THE ONE HOUR RULE. 

I SEE the Hon. Thomas H. Benton in his "Thirty Years," speaks in 
strong terms of condemnation of the hour rule, limiting the time 
allowed each speaker to one hour, in the House of Representatives. 
Happening to be in the House, while that measure was under debate, 
and again under the operation of the rule after it was adopted, I saw 
and noticed its operation ; and candor compels me to say, that I differ 
widely from Col. Benton on the propriety of the limitation. I consider 
it an enlargement of the area of debate, while it may be a limitation 
as to the particular member entitled to the floor. The House was 
composed of some 220 members, each anxious for the floor, ready and 
charged with speeches for home consumption ; not more than one-half 
of which could be accommodated in the course of an ordinary session. 

The rule was said to be an abridgment of the right of debate, be- 
cause it confined the speaker to one hour. Of course it gave the bal- 
ance of the time he might have held out to others desiring the floor ; 
and as none of them spoke for the House, the one hour speech deliv- 
ered, was quite sufficient to hang all that he desire to print, and send 
home upon, to enlighten his constituents. While the debate upon 
the one-hour rule was going on, a little sqeaking Member was address- 
ing the House, in most bitter denunciations of the rule. " I say upon 
my personal responsibility, that it is worse than the Gag Law of old 
John Adams ; it is a stop law, a perfect injimction, and for one in the 
name of my outraged constituency, I enter my solemn protest against 
any abridgment of my speeches," and down he sat evidently well sat- 
isfied with hiuiself. A few days after the passage of the rule, 
the same member got the floor, and had been speaking when I 
entered I learned, about fifteen minutes. As I caught his voice, " I 
say, Mr. Speaker," looking at the clock, "as I was saying, Mr. Speaker," 
another look at the clock ; " as I said when I first rose, I opposed the 
Gag Law with all my might, as an outrage on my constituents in my 



THE DUKE DE JOINYILLE, ETC. 597 

person, and I never will submit to it." Looks at the clock again — " Only 
half an hour yet ! Mr. Speaker, I am of opinion the clock has stopped, 
if I am mistaken in that, I yield the balance of my hour to the next 
speaker, and take my seat." Half the house jumped to their feet, 
and roared out " Mr. Speaker," " Mr. Speaker." One only, of course, 
got the floor, while forty others were anxiously waiting for his hour to 
expire. 

The freedom of debate abridged ! Far from it ; the area of debate 
is much enlarged. Hundreds of members will now be able to give 
their views under the one-hour rule, that could never open their mouths 
but for the rule, while the one hour gives all the time absolutely nec- 
essary, to those who speak to the c|uestion. Mr. Calhoun seldom 
occupied longer than an hour in his ablest speeches. 



THE DUKE DE JOINYILLE 

One evening as I was passing down the avenue, at Washington City, 
I noticed a horseman coming from the west end at full speed. I soon 
saw that the horse was running away with his rider, as he came nearly 
opposite the Indian Queen hotel. The rider fell near the pavement, 
turning a complete somerset, a short distance from where I was stand- 
ing. I ran to the fallen horseman, when a foreigner raised him up, 
and inquired, ■' Are you hurt, Prince?" "Not much." I inquired 
who it was. " It is the Prince de Joinville of France, the Admiral of the 
Navy." He stood before me, a royal scion of the House of Bourbon, 
a youth above the medium hight, slim, black hair, eyes and moustache. 
He walked away, limping ; and I learned afterward, that he had re- 
turned to France, before he entirely recovered from his fall. He could 
command the French, navy, but not an American pony. 



DICKENS-BOZ 

The Senate had just met one morning, or rather noon, I was in my 
seat next to Mr. Buchanan, when we noticed the Senators on the 
opposite side of the chamber coming round to our side, and one after 
another being introduced to a small, full-faced, light-haired, blue-eyed 
man, with a laughing countenance, seated on the side sofa. Mr. 
Buchanan. — " Mr. Smith, how do you like the looks of Mr. Dick- 
ens ? " " What Mr. Dickens ? " " Boz." " Is that Boz ? " " Yes, 
the identical Boz." " Are you going to be introduced to him, Mr. 
Buchanan ? " '• I am in no hurry about it. I never run after 
strangers." I was afterward introduced to him by Mr. Merrick, of 



598 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Maryland. I confess I did not see in him the greatest living writer 
of fiction of the age, and yet such was his position at the time. I 
conversed a few minutes with him, he seemed to have social qualities 
of a high order. Perhaps I have read his works with more interest, 
since I have seen and conversed with him. 



GRAVES AND CILLEY. 

The day was cold and blustering. I left my boarding-house about 
ten o'clock in the morning, and went up to the Capitol. Neither 
House was in session, I crossed the rotunda, to the hall of the 
House of Representatives, where I saw two groups of members in 
seeming earnest conversation. I soon learned from one of them that 
William J. Graves, of Kentucky, and Jonathan Cilley, of New Hamp- 
shire, had left the city with their seconds to fight a duel ; that Mr. 
Crittenden had gone with them ; that Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, 
was the second of Graves, and George W. Jones, of Iowa, the second 
of Cilley ; that Graves would fight with a rifle of Francis P. Blair, 
carrying about eighty to the pound, and Cilley with a rifle of Dr. 
Duncan, of Cincinnati, carrying about one hundred and fifty to the 
pound ; that Cilley was the best shot, but the difi"erence in the weight 
of the balls, at the distance of a hundred yards, in such a cold, windy 
day, would place them upon terms of equality. I learned further 
from those who seemed to know, that the quarrel or difficulty out of 
which the duel had grown, was after this wise : Mr. Cilley, a member 
of the House, in debate, had reflected upon the character of James 
Watson Webb, of New York. Webb demanded a retraction. Cilley 
refused to have any thing to say to him. Webb applied to Mr. Graves 
as his friend, to carry a challenge to Cilley. It was said that Mr. Graves 
consented without much reflection ; he not having the remotest idea 
that the challenge would be refused by Mr. Cilley, who was known to 
be a man of courage, and recognizing the obligation of the Code of 
Honor. But in this he was mistaken ; on presenting the challenge, 
Mr. Cilley informed Mr. Graves that he chose to have nothing to do 
with Jas. Watson Webb. This placed Mr. Graves, under the Code of 
Honor, as the friend of Mr. Webb, in a critical position ; he was com- 
pelled to demand of Mr. Cilley the grounds of his refusal. Was it 
because Mr. Cilley did not recognize Mr. Webb as a gentleman ? if so, 
it became the duty of Mr. Graves, under the Code, to stand in the 
place of Mr. Webb and challenge Mr. Cilley. Every efi"ort was made 
to induce Mr. Cilley to relieve Mr. Graves from his position, by plac- 
ing his refusal to accept the challenge of Mr. Webb, on a ground that 



GEAVES AND CILLEY. 599 

would enable the friends of Mr. Graves to say that he could get out 
of the controversy with honor. Mr. Cilley refused to say more, than 
that he did not choose to be drawn into any controversy with Mr. 
Webb. This was decided by the friends of Mr. Graves to be insuffi- 
cient to relieve him, and he immediately challenged Mr. Cilley, select- 
ing Henry A. "Wise for his second. Mr. Cilley accepted the challenge, 
and chose George W. Jones, of Iowa, as his second. The rifles were 
obtained as I have stated, and such was the secrecy with which the 
matter was carried bn, that neither Mr. Webb, nor the police of 
Washington, could find their whereabouts until the duel was fought, 
and Mr. Cilley was killed. At the time I went over to the House, 
the parties were in the field, their friends and partisans greatly excit- 
ed. Mr. Graves was a Whig, and Mr. Cilley a Democrat. The first 
report that reached us was, that Mr. Graves fell at the first fire. This 
was soon contradicted by a rumor that neither was touched, at the 
first and second fires, and the third was about to take place ; a moment 
afterward a man rushed into the hall and cried with a loud voice, 
" Cilley is dead ; he fell at the third fire." Such an exhibition of 
feeling I never witnessed as upon this announcement. Some thirty 
minutes elapsed, and I saw from the window of my room, on the west 
of the Capitol, the wagon containing the body of Mr. Cilley, slowly 
moving down the avenue to Third-street, where it turned up to his 
late boarding-house. Such was the^nd of Jonathan Cilley, as honor- 
able a man as ever lived. Mr. Graves lived a few years longer. He 
was at my house, in Indianapolis, some years after, but it was too 
evident from the change in his appearance, that life with him had 
become a burden. I am opposed to the whole dueling Code, both in 
theory and practice. I thought at the time, that Mr. Cilley fell a 
victim to a false principle of honor ; that the punctilio of the Code 
requiring Mr. Graves to give the challenge, had been more than satis- 
fied on both sides by the first fire, and no other fire should ever have 
been permitted by those having control of the lives of these brave 
men, who were driven to the field without any personal difficulty 
whatever between them. 



600 EAKLY INDIANA TEIALS. 



JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 

One of the noblest sons of Kentucky, was tlie subject of this 
sketch. I have no purpose of attempting even a brief eulogy upon 
his life and character, much less to analyze his public acts. I speak 
of him as I saw him in the Senate of the United States. AVe were 
six years together in open and private sessions, and I am free to say, 
u more open, frank, honorable gentleman I never met. He was a 
true representative of the generosity, hospitality, urbanity, talents, 
and moral and personal courage of his State. To say that Mr. Crit- 
tenden possessed a mind of the highest order — to say that he possessed 
off-hand debating powers equal to any member of the Senate, would 
only express the opinion of all who ever served with him. My 
Dpportunities of judging and appreciating him, were such as to entitle 
me to form an opinion of my own of that great man. It has been 
said, that no Senator can get credit for more than his talents enable 
him to in that body, nor will he fall below his proper position, but 
like water, he will find his level. This may be true ; but if the level 
of Mr. Crittenden, in public opinion, has been below any other Sena- 
tor, he forms an exception to the rule. Mr. Crittenden was about a 
medium bight, very large head, full capacious brain, dark hair, falling 
carelessly over his forehead, dark intelligent eye, prominent mouth, 
projecting teeth. As a speaker, he was clear, strong, forcible, impul- 
sive, with a voice of high-toned sarcasm, that made him a dreaded 
competitor in personal contests. On one occasion he came in col- 
lision with Mr. Buchanan, in quite an exciting debate. I remarked 
to Mr. Buchanan, pleasantly, that it was well for him that it was not 
Mr. Clay that he had to deal with. " You are mistaken ; I would 
rather meet Mr. Clay than Mr. Crittenden." 

The high-toned eloquence of Mr. Crittenden seemed to flow from 
his lips without an effort. He was always prepared, always eloquent, 
always prompt and ready. I have looked over the many able speeches 
of Mr. Crittenden, for the purpose of making a selection for the eye 
of the reader, of his style in debate, and present a short one from his 
remarks on the Revolutionary Claim Bill, as showing the character 
and qualities of his heart. Mr. Crittenden is at this day the only 
remaining Senator in the body with whom I served during an entire 
term ; and after the 7th of December he will have but a single other 
co-Senator of 1841, in the person of James F. Simmons, the able 
Senator from Rhode Island. Mr. Crittenden bears upon his counten- 
ance a green old age ; long may he live to enjoy it. 



JOHIV J. CRITTENDEX. 601 

" Now, sir, is it a debt of mere gratitude ? Is it a mere gratuity 
that we are paying ? Is it a debt in respect to which our Constitu- 
tional rights can be invoked, as they have been by the gentleman 
from Michigan ? The debt is extinguished, in one sense of the term. 
In the legal, technical sense of the term, the debt is extinguished. 
That I admit. But is there not a moral obligation on us to make 
good, to the uttermost, when we are able to do so, our obligations, 
founded on such meritorious considerations? That is the question. 
If a debt which I owe to you is barred by the statute of limitations, 
does it not extinguish the legal obligation ? But am I under no 
moral obligations growing out of the matter ? Is it a mere matter of 
gratitude if afterward, when I become able to do so, I feel under obli- 
gations to acquit myself of my debt, and pay you that debt so barred, 
and which bar, in a time of distress, I was obliged to shelter myself 
under? What was the condition of the Government when it made 
this proi)osition to the officers ? They come out of the war victorious 
and naked. They come out of the war triumphant and penniless. 
The Government was in no condition to execute its obligations. 
Promises of half-pay they could not satisfy. They sought for them- 
selves some little exemption and procrastination of this obligation by 
giving the promise of full-pay for five years, the payment of the 
principal to be postponed for ten years. By these hopes your needy, 
and naked, and hungry officers, as many of them were, were tempted 
to accept the terms. They have received the commutation. If they 
give credit for that on account, when you become able and prosperous, 
where is there any restraint in the Constitution to prevent your satis- 
fying your sense of moral obligation by paying the full balance? Is 
it no debt because it is not recoverable by law ? No national debt is 
recoverable by law. The creditor must depend on the sovereignty 
and on the gratitude of the Government. It is to measure its own 
obligation. There is no legal tribunal before which you could go and 
drag this nation to answer. 

" Your courts of law have decided that, as to a debt barred, and 
which is no longer one of legal obligation, if the party promise to pay 
it, the previous debt, barred though it be, is an ample consideration 
for the subsequent promise. That was your condition. You were 
unable to pay, as you had promised, half-pay for life ; you gave some- 
thing like security for a smaller sum. Your honest creditor accepted 
it. You have paid that ; and if you feel any moral obligation to do 
so, you are able to pay the balance. Will you do it ? It is not a case 
of mere gratuity, certainly, nor a case of a mere debt of gratitude. 
That is not it; it is a money obligation, which, under your invitation. 



602 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

your creditor departed from, and took for it that wliich was not an 
ample consideration, ttat which was not a fair equivalent. Half-pay 
for life was given up for full pay for five years. Now, when the Gov- 
ernment is rich, and prosperous, and abundantly able to pay, the 
House of Representatives, at least, have said : ' We will settle with 
these men fairly ; we will credit them for the sum they received as 
full pay for five years, and if there be any of the half-pay for life due 
to any of them, we will pay that.' I say this is not a gratuity. There 
was a moral obligation, a high obligation, to satisfy this debt of the 
Revolution. It was out of that we derived our very being as an inde- 
pendent and sovereign Government. We may as well look back on 
all the transactions of that day as somewhat more hallowed than the 
ordinary transactions of life, or even the ordinary transactions of Gov- 
ernment. It was a sacred generation ; a day sacred to liberty. Every 
thing belonging to it ought to be sanctified in our view, and to our 
feelings. This is the way in which I regard it. 

" Standing here, and respecting the Constitution as much as any 
one, and no more willing than another to give away the public money, 
I feel that there is in this transaction a moral obligation upon which 
we are as fully authorized under the Constitution to pay, as we are to 
pay any debt of the most strictly legal and technical character. I am 
therefore for this bill. It embraces only those who received the com- 
mutation of five years' full pay. They are known on the record. 
There can be no ambiguity ; there can be no room for imposition, by 
means of fraudulent testimony. It is only to the descendants of those 
who are on record, and are named and ascertained, that any payment 
can be made. I think, therefore, my friend from Michigan may dis- 
miss some of the fears with which he regarded the necromancy and 
wickedness of those agents. They must find the man's name on 
record, and all that remains to be ascertained by testimony and 
inquiry is, who are his children and grand-children ? They, and they 
alone, are entitled. I beg gentlemen to recollect, that it was under a 
resolution of 1783, that the commutation of five years' full pay was 
accepted ; and it was ten years from that time before the principal 
became due. What was the condition of those certificates during that 
time ? The country was under the government of the Confederation ; 
a weak and feeble Government, impoverished, without power and with- 
out means. What was to be its destiny, the wisest men could not 
tell — the wisest could not foresee; and the humblest, and the most 
uninformed might well dread its termination — its falling to pieces 
from mere inability and want of cohesion, at any time. They accepted 
these certificates, payable ten years afterward. Of credit it had none. 



JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 603 

What was the value of a certificate payable ten years afterward, upon 
such a security ? Could prompt payment be calculated upon, at the 
time it fell due ? Was it calculated upon ? or did these certificates 
depreciate to a mere nominal value ? They did so depreciate. What 
was the needy soldier to do ? He was no longer in the army ; his 
means consisted in his certificate ; perhaps nothing, or little else. 
What was he to do with it; and what did he, in point of fact, do with 
it? Nine out often sold these certificates for a nominal price. They 
were afterward funded by the Grovernment, to be sure, after the adop- 
tion of the present Constitution ; but during that term of ten years 
they depreciated, day by day, and were sold for what the poor ofiicer 
could get for them. Look now at the condition of the officer thus 
placed, and see if he is not worthy of some little consideration ; and 
if we can not in our present prosperity, and in our present plenty 
(though legally we are discharged), in justice, and under the Consti- 
tution, make to him some indemnity for the loss sustained. I think 
so, and it is therefore that T shall vote for this bill." 



604 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

SCHUYLER COLFAX. 

Feav men of his age have acquired so much reputation at home and 
abroad, within the last few years, as the subject of this sketch. I had 
known Mr. Colfax but partially, before he took his seat as a delegate 
in the Constitutional Convention of 1850. It was in that body that 
he developed the character of his mind, and showed that he possessed 
powers of no ordinary character ; he deservedly stood among the most 
active and useful members of the Convention, after which he repre- 
sented his district with signal ability in Congress. Mr. Colfax is a 
self-made man, who by the force of his native powers, and, in despite 
of the want of a classical education, has raised himself to the hio-h 
position which he occupies among his cotemporaries. As a speaker 
he is plain, distinct, fluent, forcible. Mr. Colflix is under the medium 
hight, slim and spare, large forehead, light hair and eyes, pale face, 
good features. 

Mr. Colfax was an ardent Whig, while that party existed, and after 
their dissolution, became a leader in the Eepublican party in support 
of John C. Fremont. He took a very active part in the debate upon 
the Kansas and Nebraska question. It is no purpose of these sketches 
to enter into contested party questions on either side, and when 
abstracts from speeches are given, it is not to favor one side or the 
other in a party light, but merely to place the subject of the sketch 
and his style, prominently before the reader. For that purpose I give 
an extract from the speech of Mr. Colfax, in the House of Represent- 
atives, June 21, 1856. 

"My especial object to-day is to speak relative to the code of laws, 
now in my hand, which has emanated from a so-called Legislative 
Assembly in Kansas ; and for the making of which your constituents, 
in common with mine, have paid their proportion — the whole having 
been paid for out of the Treasury of the United States. In speaking 
of the provisions embodied in this voluminous document, and of the 
manner in which these ' laws ' have been enforced, I may feel it my 
duty to use plain and direct language ; and I find my exemplar, as 
well as my justification for it, in the unlimited freedom of debate 
which, from the first day of the session, has been claimed and exer- 
cised by gentlemen of the other side of the House. And, recognizing 
that freedom of debate as we have, to the fullest extent, subject only to 
the rules of the House, we intend to exercise it on this side, when we 
see fit to do so, in the same ample manner. Hence, when we have 
been so frequently called ' fanatics,' and other epithets of denuncia- 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 605 

tion, no one, on tlies& seats, has even called gentlemen of the other 
side to order. When it has pleased them to denounce us as Black 
Republicans or colored Eepublicans, we have taken no exception to 
the attack, for we regard freedom of speech as one of the pillars of our 
free institutions. When, not content with this, the}^ have charged us 
with implied perjury, in being hostile to the Constitution, and unfaith- 
ful to the Union, we have been, content to leave the world to judge 
between us and our accusers — a scrutiny in which principles will have 
more weight than denunciation. In spite of all these attacks we have 
not been moved to any attempt to restrict the perfect and most unlim- 
ited freedom of speech on the part of our denouncers ; for we acknowl- 
edged the truth of Jefferson's sentiment, that ' Error ceases to be 
dangerous when Reason is left free to combat it.' 

" Mr. Chairman, I feel compelled, on this occasion, therefore, by 
truth, and by a conscientious conviction of what I know to be the 
feelings of my constituents — for whom I speak as much as I do for 
myself — to denounce, as I do this day, the 'code' of the so-called 
Legislature of Kansas as a code of tyranny and oppression, a code of 
outi-age and wrong, which would disgrace the Legislature of any State 
of the LTnion, as it disgraces the Goths and Vandals, who, after inva- 
ding and conquering the Territory, thus attempted to play the des- 
pot over its people, and to make the white citizens of Kansas greater 
slaves than the blacks of Missouri. No man can examine the decrees 
of Louis Napoleon, no matter how ignorant he may have been of the 
procession of events in France for the past six years, without having 
the conviction forced upon his mind that they emanated from a 
usurper and a despot. The very enactments embodied in these decrees 
bear testimony against him. The limitations on the right of the sub- 
ject ; the mockery of the pretended freedom of elections which he 
has vouchsafed to the people ; the rigid censorship of the press ; the 
shackles upon the freedom of speech ; all combine to prove that they 
emanate from an autocrat, who, however men may differ as to the wis- 
dom of his statesmanship, undoubtedly governs France with a strong 
arm and an iron rule. And so, sir, no unprejudiced man can rise 
from a candid perusal of this code without being thoroughly convinced 
that it never emanated from a Legislature voluntarily chosen by the 
people whom it professes to govern ; but that it was dictated and 
enacted by usurpers and tyrants, whose leading object was to crush out 
some sentiment predominant among that people, but distasteful and 
offensive to these usurping legislators. I know this is a strong asser- 
tion ; but, in the hour of your time which I shall occupy, I shall prove 
this assertion from the intrinsic evidence of the code itself. 



606 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

" Before I proceed to make an analysis of these laws, wliich I hold 
were never legally enacted, were never fit to be made, nor fit to be 
obeyed by a free people, let me say a few words in regard to the man- 
ner in which they have been administered and enforced. We have 
heard of murder after murder in Kansas— murders of men for the 
singular crime of preferring freedom to slavery ; but you have not 
heard of one single attempt by any court in that Territory to indict 
any one of those murderers. The bodies of Jones, of Dow, of Bar- 
ber, and others, murdered in cold blood, are moldering away and join- 
ing the silent dust ; while one of the murderers this very day holds a 
territorial oflBce in Kansas, and another of them holds an office of 
influence and rank under the authority of the General Government ; 
while neither the Territorial nor the General Government inquire into 
the crimes they have committed, or the justification for their brothers' 
blood that stains their hands. 

" Now, if you will turn to the concluding portion of this ' code of 
laws,' you will find one hundred and forty pages of it, over one-sixth 
of the whole, devoted to corporations, shingled in profusion over the 
whole Territory, granting charters for railroads, insurance companies, 
toll-bridges, ferries, universities, mining companies, plank roads, and, 
in fact, all kind of charters that are of value to their recipients, and 
more, indeed, than will be needed there for many years. Xo less than 
four or five hundred persons (not counting one hundred territorial 
road commissioners), have been thus incorporated, and have been 
made the recipients of the bounty of that legislation of Kansas, 
making a great portion, if not all of them, interested advocates to 
sustain the legality of those laws now in dispute before the American 
people. I need scarcely add that the name of nearly every citizen of 
Kansas who has been conspicuous in the recent bloody scenes in that 
Territory on the side of slavery, can be found among the favored 
grantees ; and all of Ihem know that, if that Legislature is proved to 
be illegal and fraudulent, their grants become valueless. 

" I do not hesitate to brand that charge of Judge Lecompt, under 
which Governor Robinson was indicted for treason, and is now under 
confinement and refused bail, as grossly, palpably unjust, and wholly 
unauthorized by the Constitution. To concede his argument, that to 
resist, or ' to form the purpose of resisting,' the territorial laws is treas- 
on against the United States because Congress authorized a Legisla- 
ture to pass laws, leads you irresistibly to the additional position, that 
to resist the orders of the country boards created by that Legislature 
is also treason, for these boards are but one further remove from the 
fountain-head of power. And thus, sir, 'the extreme medicine of the 



SCHUYLER COLFAX. 607 

Constitution would become its daily bread, ' and the man who even 
objected to the opening of a road through his premises, would be sub- 
ject to the pains and penalties of treason. No, sir, that charge is only 
another link in the chain of tyranny, which the pro-slavery rulers of 
that Territory are encoiling around its people. And when the defend- 
ers of these proceedings ask us to trust to the impartiality of courts, I 
answer them by pointing to this charge, and also to the judicial decrees 
of the Territory, by authority of which numbers of faithful citizens 
of the United States have been indicted, imprisoned and harassed, by 
authority of which the town of Lawrence was sacked and bombarded, 
by authority of which printing-presses were destroyed, without legal 
notice to their owners, and costly buildings cannonaded and consumed 
without giving the slightest opportunity to their proprietors to be heard 
in opposition to these decrees ; all part and parcel of the plot to drive 
out the friends of freedom from the Territory, so that slavery might 
take unresisted possession of its villages and plains. 

" It might have been supposed that, one of those rights dear to all 
American freeman — the trial of an impartial jury — would have been 
left for the people of Kansas unimpaired. But when the invaders and 
conquerors of Kansas, in their border-rufl&an Legislature, struck down 
all the rights of freemen, they did not even leave them this, with which 
they might possibly have had some chance of justice, even against the 
hostility of Presidents, the tyranny of Governors, and the hatred of 
judges. No jurors, sir, are drawn by lot in the Territory. But the 
first section of the act concerning jurors(see page 377) enacts that ' all 
courts, before whom jurors are required, may order the marshal, sheriff 
or other officer, to summon a sufficient number of jurors.' 

" The whole matter is left to the discretion of these officers ; and 
Marshal Donaldson or ' Sheriff Jones ' pack juries with just such men 
as they prefer, and whom they know will be their willing instruments. 
For a free-State man to hope for justice from such a jury charged by 
such a judge as Lecompt, would be to ask that the miracle by which 
the three Israelites passed through the fiery furnace of their persecu- 
tors unscathed, should be daily re-enacted in the jurisprudence of Kan- 
sas. Nay, more, sir, to make assurance doubly sure, the same law in 
regard to jurors excludes all but pro-slavery men from the jury-box 
in all cases relating directly or indirectly to slavery. 

" The President of the United States has declared, in his special 
message to Congress, in his proclamation, and in his orders to Gov- 
ernor Shannon and Col. Sumner, through his Secretary of State and 
Secretary of War, that this code of territorial laws is to be enforced 
by the full exercise of his power. He has, of course, read them, and 



608 EAELY IXDIAXA TRIALS. 

knows t)f their provisions. He must know that they trample even on 
the organic law, which his official signature breathed into life. He 
must know that they trample on the Constitution of the United States, 
which he and we have sworn to support. Reading them as he has, he 
could have chosen rather to support the law of Congress, and the 
national Constitution ; but he preferred to declare publicly his inten- 
tion of assisting, with all his power and authority, the enforcement of 
this code, which repudiates both. 

" As I look, sir, to the smiling valleys and fertile plains of Kansas, 
and witness there the sorrowful scenes of civil war, in which, when 
forbearance at last ceased to be a virtue, the free-State men of the 
Territory felt it necessary, deserted as they were by their Government, 
to defend their lives, their fiimilies, their property, and their hearth- 
stones, the language of one of the noblest statesmen of the age, uttered 
six years ago at the other end of this Capitol, rises before my mind. 
I allude to the great statesman of Kentucky, Henry Clay. And while 
the party which, while he lived, lit the torch of slander at every avenue 
of his private life, and libeled him before the American people by 
every epithet that renders man infemous, as a gambler, debauchee, 
traitor, and enemy of his country, are now engaged in shedding ficti- 
tious tears over his grave, and appealing to his old supporters to aid 
by their votes in shielding them from the indignation of an uprisen 
people, I ask them to read this language of his, which' comes to us as 
from his tomb to-day. With the change of but a single geographical 
word in the place of ' Mexico,' how prophetically does it apply to the 
very scenes and issues of this year ! And who can doubt with what 
party he would stand in the coming campaign, if he were restored to 
us from the damps of the grave, when they read the following, which 
fell from his lips in 1850, and with which, thanking the House for its 
attention, I conclude my remarks. 

" ' But if, unhappily, we should be involved in war, in civil war, 
between the two parties of this confederacy, in which the effort upon 
the one side should be to restrain the introduction of slavery into the 
new Territories, and upon the other side to force its introduction there, 
what a spectacle should we present to the astonishment of mankind, 
in an effort not to propagate rights, but — -I must say it, though I trust 
it will be understood to be said with no design to excite feeling — a 
war to propagate wrongs in the Territories thus acquired from Mex- 
ico ! It would be a war in which we should have no sympathies, no 
good wishes — in which all mankind would be against us; for, from 
the commencement of the Eevolution we have constantly reproached our 
British ancestors for the introduction of slavery into the country.'" 



ANDEEW KENNEDY. 609 

ANDREW KENNEDY. 

In the year 1824, there lived at Connersville a good-looking, good- 
natured, fat-faced journeyman blacksmith, by the name of Andrew 
Kennedy, just out of his apprenticeship, with a very ordinary Eng- 
lish education, but possessing a strong, vigorous mind. He soon 
abandoned his anvil forever, and commenced the study of law, obtained 
license, and located permanently at Muncie. Time passed on, and 
Mr. Kennedy became a good lawyer, a prominent member of the State 
Senate, and finally a representative in Congress, where he sustained 
himself with high credit to himself as an able debater. After serv- 
ing his term in Congress, Mr. Kennedy, in the bloom of his life, 
returned home, came to Indianapolis, there took the small-pox, and 
after lingering a short time, died, and was carried to the cemetery 
wrapped in the clothes of the bed in which he died, and interred at 
midnight by the driver of the hearse and the sexton of the cemeter}', 
— no other persons being willing to risk the contagion — both of which 
caught the disease from his body, died the next week, and lie near his 
remains. Such was the melancholy end of young Kennedy. He 
was a strong Democrat, warmly opposed to the Whig party. I give 
an extract from one of his speeches in Congress, which will be read 
with interest by his many friends : 

" Mr. Chairman : — The main proposition is, simply, in what shape 
can we best raise the necessary funds to supply the immediate demands 
of the Government ? The proposition now before us is, to borrow ; 
and my objection to it is, that it does not provide the means and mode 
for the payment of the interest by some permanent fund, which will 
save the paper from depreciation, or the necessity of its sale below par 
value. If you will provide and set apart a permanent fund for this 
purpose, you will have no need of the amendment now pending; 
which is to authorize the sale of stocks at what they will bring in the 
market, without reference to the amount of money received for them. 

" Mr. Chairman, I have seen too much of the depression of State 
credit, and the causes that led to it, not to know that as long as you 
borrow money to pay the interest on money borrowed, the stocks will 
depreciate, be they State or national. What has ruined the credit of 
the States but the suicidal course of borrowing money without pro- 
viding a fund for the payment of interest? And do gentleiuen sup- 
pose that the national credit will not inevitably take the same road, 
while we pursue the same course ? No, sir, although I dislike, as I 
most cordially do, the measures of the Whig party, yet, as men, I 
39 



610 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

like tliem too well to attempt to make them responsible for more than 
their just deserts. And Heaven knows that is enough ; for the load 
(if responsibility which they have, by their desperation, justly brought 
upon their shoulders, is sufficient to make a giant stagger. What, 
then, was the remote cause of our present difficulties, as connected 
with this single question of the ways and means? I answer, first, the 
high protective tariff of 1828, by which the Treasury was filled to 
overflowing," — and that too, at the expense of the sweat of the poor 
man's brow ;« drawn from him by a species of indirect taxation, 
the operation of which he could not see until he was overwhelmed in 
poverty and ruin. This inordinate revenue begot a spirit of extrava- 
gance in the Government, which, in turn, spread itself into every 
branch of business throughout the entire country, until, by this 
means, every thing had a factitious and unsubstantial value. This 
was an evil in itself, but it went on begetting others, vintil, in 1832, 
this artificial and factitious system began to press upon some sections 
of the country so hard that the muttering thunder of distress and 
discontent made itself heard and listened to even in the halls of our 
national legislature. 

" Let us look for a few moments at the fruits of this victory. The 
extra session came — a session that will be remembered for the evil it 
wrought as long as one stone of this Capitol is found upon another. 
What did this session produce, called, as it was avowed, for the pur- 
poses of finance ? Here you then were, gentlemen, with a clear, tri- 
umphant, and undisputed majority in both branches of the Legisla- 
ture ; called to relieve the financial embarrassments of the country. 
What did you effect? One would have supposed that the first and 
all-absorbing object would have been — a permanent and thorough 
revision of the tariff, such as would in future have placed the Govern- 
ment out of the reach of these despicable expedients of borrowing ! 
borrowing! from month to month, and from year to year. One would 
have supposed that to supply the Treasury would have been the first 
object. Was this done ? No. Strange to tell, the first act of a Con- 
gress called to fill aii exhausted treasury, was to rob it of its last 
shilling ! And, at that time, such was the horror of the Whig party 
at even the thought of disturbing the Compromise Act, that they would 
not even pass this, their favorite measure of distribution, withovit pro- 
viding in the act itself, that if duties were raised on any one article 
above the amount contained in the Compromise Act, from thence for- 
ward the distribution should cease. Of this course of the majority, 
and their acts, I complain, and bitterly too — not because of any effect 
they will have upon me, other than as a citizen of this Union ; but 



THOMAS SMITH. 611 

because, by this act, you have humbled my pride as a citizen of one 
of the States. You have made me witness what I had fondly hoped 
my destiny had not doomed me to — to see the States of this confed- 
eracy meekly and tamely leaning, with a few honorable exceptions, 
upon the General Government for support ! Sir, it is too humiliating 
to dwell upon. But the gentleman on my left (Mr. Howard, of Mich- 
igan), says the States needed the money. Need the money I Well, 
did not the General Government need the money too ? and that from 
your own showing ! And pray, what good have you done the States? 
Is it not perfectly notorious that from the day of the passage of the 
distribution bill, your State stocks commenced and continued a rapid 
decline in value until many of them ai-e now scarcely worth the paper 
upon which they are printed? Nor need any man be surprised, for 
rest assured, there is but one step from a loss of self-respect, to base 
dishonor. And what man would trust the son who, instead of being 
engaged in honest industry to procure the means of paying his debts, 
was found fumbling in his father's breeches pocket, to rob him of his 
last ' levy ;' and that, too, when the old man had scarcely money 
enough to buy himself a plug of tobacco ! Away with these despica- 
ble shifts to sustain credit. State or national. No man with capital, 
who does not need a guardian, will ever trust you, while these are the 
principles you avow and practice." 



THOWAS SMITH. 

In the winter of the year 1818, one evening I went to a little 
school-house in Rising Sun, to a debating society. I met there a 
number of the yoi^ig men of the place, among them the subject of 
this sketch, a young tanner in his apprenticeship ; his face smooth, 
eye and hair dark, forehead high, face najTow, countenance smiling 
and pleasant, below the common hight, spare person. I heard him 
that night, and then said, " That young man will yet be known in the 
State." Time rolled on, Thomas Smith married a daughter of Judge 
John Watts, settled in Versailles, Ripley county. Was soon after a 
member of the Senate of the State, among the most able of the body. 
Soon after he was elected to Congress, and again re-elected, and 
served his constituents with decided ability in that body of distin- 
guished men. His manner, as a debater, was plain, straightforward, 
emphatic, impressive. He was heard with attention, wherever he 
spoke. He was a strong Democrat, and a prominent leader of that 
party, until the Missouri Compromise line was effaced by the Nebraska 
and TCansas bill, when he took sides with the Republicans, and pre- 



612 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. ' 

sided over their convention at Indianapolis. He maintained the 
integrity of the Compromise Acts, and placed himself firmly upon the 
principles of the non-extension of slavery, over territory that was 
ever free. Thomas Smith is still living in line health, in Ripley 
county. 

DANIEL MACE. 

I TAKE pleasure in numbering among my early friends of Indiana, 
Daniel 3Iace, of the Wabash. Mr. Mace was for many years one of 
the prominent men from tliat region of country in our State Legisla- 
ture, perhaps no member of his age held a higher position. He stood 
many years among the first of the Democratic party in Congress. As 
a speaker, he was plain, effective, practical, sometimes eloquent. He 
holds that slavery is sectional, confined to the States, whose constitu- 
tions tolerated it, and to the Territories wherein it subsisted, prior to 
the treaty of peace with Mexico, south of the parallel of 36° 40', 
known as the 3Iissouri Compromise line, and that freedom is national. 

He thereforefore strongly resisted the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise Act, by the Kansas and Nebraska bill, in Congress ; and on 
his return from Congress, he took open ground on the Republican 
side of the Senatorial contest between James Buchanan and John C. 
Fremont. Mr. Mace is about the common size of men, broad face, 
high forehead, dark hair and eyes, well made. He is still in the sum- 
mer of life, practicing his profession at Lafayette. 



JOHN W. DAVIS. 

The House of Representatives of the State had met for the first 
time in the new capitol, the Speaker had been elected, announced that 
the first business was the election of chief Clerk, and directed the 
members to prepare their ballots. I noticed a large, fine-looking man 
near me, pencil in hand, ready to keep tally, as the ballots were 
counted by the tellers. The vote was soon received, and the counting 
commenced ; the gentleman turned to the wall, and as the name of 
John W. Davis was announced, he placed a long pencil-mark on the 
wall. The count closed, and the tally stood, John W. Davis, 11 ; 
somebody else had received the rest of the one hundred votes cast. I 
saw his disappointment marked visibly in his face ; he stood alone. I 
stepped up to him, with a smiling countenance, " You are yet to be a 
great man." '■ What do you mean ?" "I mean that you got eleven 
votes for Clerk, precisely the number that I got at Corydon, for the 
same ofiice." Mr. Davis laughed, and we soon became acquainted. 



WILLIAM S. ARCHER, ETC. 613 

My prediction was afterward verified to the letter ; lie soon made his 
appearance in our State Legislature, was elected Speaker of the House 
over Harbin H. Moore ; was soon after returned to Congress from his 
district, re-elected, chosen Speaker by the vote of his party, and was 
acknowledged to be one of the A'ery best presiding officers of that 
body, since the Speakership of Heiiry Clay. He has served his coun- 
try as Commissioner to China, and as Governor of Oregon ; since he 
voluntarily left the councils of the nation. Last session he was a 
a member of our State Legislature. Few men in this, or any other 
State, have held so many prominent positions, or discharged their 
duties with greater ability. In person, Mr. Davis is large and com- 
manding, complexion light, features prominent, forehead capacious, 
mouth wide, teeth projecting, hair and eyes light. The last time I 
saw him he looked like living many years. 



WILLIAM S. ARCHER. 

The subject of this sketch, William S. Archer, now no more, was 
justly ranked among Virginia's talented sons. I became intimately 
acquainted with him during the twentieth Congress in the House of 
Representatives, where he formed a star of no small magnitude in 
the brilliant galaxy of Virginian statesmen in that body. Mr. 
Archer was the colleague of William C. Rives, and stood with that 
distinguished statesman, in tlie first ranks of intellect in the Senate. 
In person, Mr. Archer was tall and spare, full six feet high, head 
.large, brain full and capacious, hair black, eyes dark, bi'ows heavy, 
chest narrow, voice shrill and weak, delivery slow, distinct, cool, 
delibei-ate, emphatic, a finished scholar. He was, in every sense of 
the word, a courteous gentleman, and was always heard by the Senate 
with interest. He never spoke to or for the galleries, or for out- 
siders. 



JOHN BELL. 

Among the eminent men of the United States stands the subject of 
this sketch. It was my good fortune to meet him in the twentieth 
Congress with James K. Polk as his colleague. To say that John 
Bell ranked high among the distinguished men who composed that 
Congress, would be doing no more than justice to him. To say that 
he stood among the very first men in the body, would only satisfy my 
judgment. In person, he was tall and commanding, full six feet, 



614 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

well made, straight as an arrow, large head, erect, high forehead, dark 
hair and eyes, full chest, wide mouth, prominent features. As a 
speaker, Mr. Bell may he classed with the first, — clear, strong, rapid, 
impassioned. His eloquence was neither of the cold Eastern, nor 
declamatory Southern character, but rather of the style of the West. 
Mr. Bell was one of the Cabinet that threw up his commission when 
Mr. Tyler left the Whig party. He has since distinguished himself 
as one of the Senators from Tennessee. The last time I saw him, his 
head was white, his countenance careworn, and his step faltering. 
He will soon follow his illustrious colleague. 



KENNETH RAYNER. 

One of the most prominent men of the South, for many years in 
Congress, was the subject of this sketch, Kenneth Rayner, of North 
Carolina. His mind was of a high order ; as a debater, he had few 
equals. He was strong, forcible, pointed ; always rising with the 
occasion, and equal to the occasion. I had the pleasure of a familiar 
personal acquaintance with him. He was a social gentleman in pri- 
vate circles. In person, Mr. Rayner was about the common hight, 
strong, thick-set, dark hair and eyes, large round head, full chest, 
common features. Like Senators Mangum and Graham, he was a 
firm Whig, the devoted friend of Henry Clay, and warmly attached to 
his policy. Upon the desertion of Mr. Tyler of the Whig party, Mr. 
Rayner was unanimously placed on the committee of five from the 
Whigs of the House, as the only member from the South, to act with 
the committee of three of the Senate, upon the resolutions of Mr. 
Mangum, of his State, in relation to Mr. Tyler. The committee on 
the part of the Whigs of the Senate, was composed of Mr. Berrien, 
of Georgia ; Mr. Tallmadge, of New York ; and myself. On the pari 
of the Whigs of the House, Mr. Everett, of Vermont ; Mr. Mason, 
of Ohio; Mr. Kennedy, of Maryland; Mr. John C. Clark, of New 
York ; and Mr. Rayner, of North Carolina. The resolutioios under 
which the committee acted, were as follows : 

" 1. That it is expedient for the Whigs of the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States, to publish an addre-ss to the peo- 
ple of the United States, containing a succinct exposition of the prom- 
inent proceedings of the extra session of Congress, of the measures 
that have been adopted and those in which they have fiiled, and the 
causes of such failures, together with such other matters as may 
exhibit truly the condition of the Whig party and Whig prospects. 

" 2. That a committee of three on the part of the Senate, and five 



ROBERT C. WINTHROP, ETC. 615 

on the part of the House, be appointed to prepare such address, and 
submit it to a meeting of the Whigs on Monday morning next, the 
13th inst., at half past 8 o'clock." The committee unanimously 
reported a manifesto, dissolving all connection with John Tyler, and 
repudiating every responsibility on the part of the Whigs, for his 
administration. The report was concurred in, by the entire members 
of the Whig party, at the subsequent meeting, as I have stated in 
another sketch. The manifesto was attacked in the House with great 
bitterness by Mr. Wise, Mr. Cushing and Mr. Proffit, the special friends 
of Mr. Tyler. 

ROBERT C. WINTHROP. 

The late Speaker of the House of Representatives, Robert C. Win- 
throp, deservedly stood among the very first men in the House, and 
of his age, in the nation. A close personal acquaintance with him, 
during an entire session of Congress when we boarded together, placed 
him in my mind, upon high grounds ; not only as a pleasant, social 
gentlemen ; but as a man of a very high order of talents. His person 
was tall, his manners graceful and easy, his elocution fluent, his style 
vigorous and impressive. His eloquence was of the Everett, rather 
than of the Webster character, though he seemed to have studied both 
these great models of oratory. Mr. Winthrop maintained a high 
standing in his native Massachusetts for many years before he entered 
Congress, which he not only sustained in that body, but added greatly 
to his fame, when brought into competition with other distinguished 
men. He was what is called, an old-line Whig of the school of Mr. 
Clay and Mr. Webster. He was a devoted friend to both these dis- 
tinguished statesmen, and upheld by his voice and vote, their highest 
pretensions. 

JABEZ W. HUNTINGTON. 

The state of Connecticut has not, at any time, had a more promi- 
nent representative in the Senate of the United States, than the 
subject of this sketch. Being a member of the Committee on Public 
Lands, at the time I was chairman, I had full opportunity to know 
and appreciate him. He was of the class of Senators known in the 
body as workers. With a strong, clear, vigorous, discriminating mind, 
a finished education, and untiring industry, he came into the debates 
fully prepared, and was always very formidable. As a speaker, he 
was clear, emphatic, distinct, plain, marching directly to the question 
without ^y flourish, circumlocution, or embellishment of the argu- 
ment. He was listened to with interest by the Senate — the highest 



616 EARLY INDIANA TEIALS. 

(•oniplimeiil that can be paid to a speaker in that body. Judge Hun- 
tington was under the common hight, hirge head, high retreating fore- 
head, Roman nose, wide mouth, projecting chin, dark brown hair, blue 
eyes, good chest, clear shrill voice. He was a sound Constitutional 
lawyer, and took part in most of the debates involving Constitutional, 
or legal questions. Judge Huntington deceased years since. 



GEORGE EVANS. 

The subject of this sketch, George Evans, of Maine, deservedly 
stood among the first in the Senate of the United States, during the 
term he served in that body. He had a ripe experience in the House 
of Representatives, before he took his seat in the Senate. Upon the 
ascendency of the Whig party to power, Mr. Clay was placed at the 
head of the Finance Committee. Mr. Evans became his successor, 
when Mr. Clay voluntarily retired from the arduous duties of the posi- 
tion. It was not till then that the great powers of Mr. Evans were 
manifested in the body. As chairman of the Committee on Finance, 
he came fully up to his two great predecessors, Silas Wright and Mr. 
Clay. He was always cool, calm, prepared. As a speaker he was 
strong, clear, and able ; he made himself thoroughly acquainted with 
the subject he was discussing by weight and measure ; there was no 
such thing as declamation about him, his business seemed to be with 
facts, and things ; and yet he used his imagination at times to good 
purpose. Mr. Evans was a well-set man, rather below the common 
hight, large head, light brown hair, good features, smiling countenance. 
I have selected from his speech, in reply to Mr. McDuffie on the 
subject of a Southern Confederacy, some valuable extracts, of high 
importance at this day, when our glorious Union would seem almost 
to be in danger : 

" The Senator foresees, not only the desolations of that section, but 
he warms and brightens in beholding the glorious visions of bound- 
less felicity which awaits the Southern Confederacy. He seems to 
forget that all this is in prospect — yet to be realized. He speaks of 
^ the historical JidcUtt/' which he has observed in drawing the picture. 
Now, sir, considering that history relates only to the past, I must 
think that the Senator, in his ardent zeal, has somewhat overleaped 
' the bounds of time,' if not of space. He has ' stated nothing spe.cu- 
laiive — but results only which must take place.' Really, sir, if all this 
be not speculation, it seems to me exceedingly like it. He has 
described, in very glowing language, the happiness, prosperity, and 



GEORGE EVANS. 617 

wealth, which the Southern confederacy, of homogeneous interests, 
must experience if permitted to pursue its own policy under its own 
separate Government. The long-dreamed of Fortunate Islands are 
discovered at last. The favored regions of the South, smiling in 
eternal spring, 

' Like those Hesperian gardens, famed of old. 

Fortunate fields and groves, and flowery meads, 

Thrice happy isles,' 

are to be forever the abode of peace and happiness on earth. No 
obstacle lies in the way of the bright and glorious career which opens 
before them. The convulsions which shake other nations like an 
earthquake, shall never visit them. ' Grim-visaged war will smooth 
his wrinkled front,' and peace, eternal peace, hold her benignant 
reign, while human governments exist on earth. It is not a very 
agreeable office, I am aware, to disturb such happy visions, and to 
bring back these soaring thoughts to the dull realities of earth. But 
where does the honorable Senator find any warrant, in human history, 
for the confident anticipations in which he has indulged ? In the 
example of other nations broken up and dismembered ? In the annals 
of small States and confederacies? In the history of any nation that 
ever lived upon earth, with but one single interest — ^one pursuit, one 
object of national importance? No, sir : in none of these does he find 
any warrant for his expectations. 

" But let us examine this matter a little more closely. The South- 
ern confederacy is to revel in unbounded wealth. Its commerce is 
to be forever unmolested — always prosperous— no storms shall scatter 
it — the policy of other nations shall never reach it, but it shall glide 
safely, as ' on the smooth surface of a summer sea.' The South is to 
produce for export at least one hundred millions of cotton, rice, and 
tobacco, and to receive in return one hundred and twenty millions of 
foreign manufactures — the twenty millions being the profit on the 
export. This large amount it is to have the exclusive privilege of 
consuming itself, or of exchanging with the Western confederacy for 
such articles of production as it can not raise at home. It must still 
retain some connection, some trade with its neighbors, on this side the 
ocean. If the Southern confederacy can not get on for a moment 
without some intercourse with the West, why not unite the two into 
one? What need of a Western confederacy? But that would at 
once destroy the horaogeneousness of the Southern interest, and the 
same questions would be likely to grow up, as now exist between the 
South and the North. The Southern confederacy is to have but one 
interest — that of planting. Its productions are all to be exported, 



618 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

and by this operation twenty millions of profits are to be realized. B3' 
whom ? The South ? Not at all. The profits, be they large or 
small, go to the navigating interest, to the shippers and shipowners, to 
the exporting merchants. And who will conduct this business? Not 
the planters, for all their capital and means are to be employed in 
growing the articles. The South is not to become also a commercial 
or navigating State, for that also would destroy the identity and sin- 
gleness of interest which is to prevail there. The exports must, 
therefore, inevitably be made in British ships, by British merchants, 
and agents of foreign manufacturers ; and all the profit of such 
operations must go, not to the South, but abroad. Besides, it must 
be carried on by foreign hands, for another reason, and that is, the 
policy of enriching foreign labor, by giving it all the employment 
possible, in order to enable it to consume more largely of our produc- 
tions. But passing by this, and assuming that the South is to have 
one hundred and twenty millions of foreign imports, who is to con- 
sume them ? What is the South to do with them ? She will have a 
population of about six millions. The United States have now a 
population of twenty millions ; and we find one hundred millions of 
imports ample for our whole consumption. 

" Is it probable, nay, is it possible, that the population of six mil- 
lions, in the Southern confederacy, will consume as much of foreign 
productions, of luxuries, as the whole Union does now? A large 
portion of foreign manufactures are of costly fabrics, not suited for, 
nor wanted by, a considerable part of the Southern population. 
Undoubtedly the wealthy portion of Southern population consume as 
liberally, or more so, of luxuries and expensive commodities, as those 
of any other section ; but then a very large class of persons there con- 
sume f\ir less than the laboring people of the North and West. How 
much, for instance, of silks, linens, fine woollens, glass, cutlery, car- 
peting, etc., and which go to make up the bulk of our imports, are 
consumed by the two and a half millions of Southern population, 
who are to be the laborei'S in the production of the one hundred mil- 
lions of exports ? How much of tea and coffee, of wines and sugar, 
and the thousand other things which our table of imports exhibit? 
Making all the allowances for the character of a portion of the popu- 
lation, does anybody deem it possible that the South could consume 
that enormous amount of foreign productions? No ; she must trade 
with some other nation, and obtain some other articles of greater 
necessity, for the South can not subsist on manufactured products 
alone. She will not trade with the North, for that is wholly inter- 
dicted in the theory of the Senator, but she will trade with the West : 



GEORGE EVANS. 019 

she will sell to the \Yest. But what will she buy in exchange ? What 
splendid inducements are held out to the West to enter into this com- 
mercial league ? The Senator says, that the West will thus be ena- 
bled to buy all she wants at low rates, and to sell all her productions 
at high prices. Let us see if this be so. What will the South take 
of the West ? I believe the only thing indicated by the Senator, as 
an article of much importance, was live animals, which are now chiefly 
obtained from that section. Of most other articles of agricultural 
production, necessary to the subsistence of Southern laborers, a suffi- 
cient supply is raised at home, and from some of them considerable 
quantities are exported to the North. But that export is then to 
cease. The West then, the boundless West, its spreading and fertile 
prairies, its millions upon millions of free, industrious people, are to 
have the mighty privilege of supplying the South with all the live 
stock it may require, and, in return, is to be wholly dependent upon 
Southern imports of foreign manufactures for every commodity of 
that description which it may need. Of the other products of the 
fertile West, the South is to take nothing. It will not require the 
cotton-bagging and bale-rope of Kentucky and Missouri ; for they are 
manufactures, and, if made at home, necessarily diminish the demand 
for the foreign imports received in return for Southern export, and, 
of course, diminishes the ability of Dundee and Glasgow to consume 
the cotton of the South. The hemp and wool of the West, for wool 
is yet to be a great staple there, can not be taken for the same reason, 
and for the additional one, that the South will have no occasion for 
them. But the Senator said, inadvertently t must think, that the 
West would export through the free ports of the South, all its surplus 
production. Why, sir, that breaks up the whole arrangement at 
once. If the West export any thing, she will import also ; and she 
will then cease to be a purchaser of the South. She will import for 
herself, and who then is to consume the one hundred and twenty mil- 
lions of Southern imports ? If the products of the West are here- 
after to form considerable portions of American exports — I hope they 
may — I see no reason why they may not be made through Northern 
ports in American ships, under our Government, as well as in a sepa- 
rate confederacy. But the whole theory of the Senator rests upon 
the ground that they are not to become exporters at all. The whole 
scope and policy, aim, end, and object of his measures, are to induce 
larger imports of foreign fabrics, with a view to create larger demands 
for Southern productions, not Western. If this enlarged import 
should occasion a demand for Western product instead of Southern, 
then the peculiar oppression and grievance of the South would be just 



620 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

as great as it is now. Nor can the "West be allowed to become a 
manufacturing region either. If it manufacture for itself, it will not 
require the foreign fabrics which the South proposes to furnish. Thei 
countless millions who are hereafter to inhabit these vast regions, 
spreading out toward the setting sun, are neither to produce for 
exportation, nor to manufacture for themselves, but are to find, in the 
markets of the South, of six or eight millions of consumers, full 
demand for all their surplus productions — productions, not one of 
which, be it remembered, must come in competition with the labor of 
foreign nations. This is the mighty boon held out to the West, in 
the new arrangement, which the Senator has sup2)osed. 

" The West, I doubt not is destined to become a great manufactur- 
ing region. It is so already to no inconsiderable extent, and its true 
interests lie in that direction. It is becoming a great producer of 
wool, and the next step must be, the manufiicture of it ; and this, 
almost of necessity. There are no markets for it abroad, and it must 
seek and have a home market. All nations are becoming growers of 
wool ; and even remote Australia is beginning to furnish it to Europe 
and America. In such a state of things, the w^ool of America must 
be manufactured in America; just as the iron of our hills must be 
manufactured here, or lie forever buried in the earth. So the wool of 
the West, and the iron of the West, must at no distant day be manu- 
factured in the West. But the Senator's partition does not look to 
that at all. It looks to keep the West always dependent for manu- 
factured articles, on the labor of others, not of itself; with no other 
means of payment but the raising of animal provisions, alive or cured, 
for a population far inferior to its own. 

" It is to be borne in mind, that the North is to be no longer a con- 
sumer of Western production ; for that also would disturb the symme- 
try of the Senator's portraiture. The North is to be too impoverished 
to deal with any body. It will have nothing to sell, and of course, 
can buy nothing any where, so far as- trade and commerce are con- 
cerned ; and may be considered wholly obliterated from the map of 
American confederacies. But, sir. is there no danger of collision in 
the Southern confederacy itself; no jarring of different branches of 
the homogeneous interest? The sole staples of export, are to be cot- 
ton, tobacco and rice ; and these are to furnish all the manufactured 
articles required for the whole confederacy. Virginia raises no cotton, 
I think ; or to a very inconsiderable amount, not worth mentioning. 
Its only pi'oduction for export, is tobacco : of which, it grows $3,500, 
000 in value. It has a population of about 1,250,000. South Caro- 
lina, with about half the population of Virginia, produces nearly 



GEOKGE EVANS. 621 

double the value of exportable commodities. Compared with Alabama, 
the disparity is greater still ; and with Mississippi, still greater. Ala- 
bama, with a population less than GOO, 000, produces over 88,000,000 
of exports ; and Mississippi, with 375,000, over 815,000,000 of imports. 
She exports but $3,500,000, and of course, can import but that amount. 
She raises nothing which South Carolina, or Alabama, or Mississippi 
want; there can be no trade between them. Her consumption should 
be in proportion to her population ; double that of the two former, 
and quadruple that of the latter State. How is she to pay for her 
excess of consumption? The result would be, that in a short time, 
Virginia would come to some reckoning with the other more favored 
States of the confederation, and demand some adjustment on a more 
equitable basis. She would say to her neighbors, ' Our good friends in 
Europe, which is our national marljcet, impose a duty on my tobacco 
of several hundred ; in some instances, 2000 per cent., while your cot- 
ton is almost free. Something must be done to equalize this matter. 
You must pay me a draw-back on my tobacco, or we can not bny your 
imports; you must buy. more of us, or we can not buy of you. We 
must manufacture for ourselves, and for you too ; or we have nothing 
to pay.' Then comes the question of taxation, of production, of home 
industry, the same which arises now. Virginia must insist and will 
insist that her coal and iron shall be consumed in preference to that 
of England — that her cotton manufictures shall be protected; and 
soon she will have woolen manufactures too. Finding herself pos; 
sessed of every element of national wealth, she would insist, and justly 
insist, on developing her rich and exhaustless resources. She would 
enter largely into manufactures, into mining, salt-works, glass-works, 
navigation, foreign and internal commerce ; and every other branch 
of human industry. She would, and will yet, and must, become what 
she has illimitable means of becoming; a manufacturing and commer- 
cial, as well as an agricultural State. She ought long ago to have been 
such. In the new confederacy, she would be more deeply sensible of 
her true interests, with far less experience than she has already had. 

" Hitherto, the North has furnished large markets for her flour and 
corn ; but in the new order of things this is to cease. The North is 
to be too poor to consume these products of Virginia ; and, besides it 
would disturb the harmony of the system. If the North should pre- 
sume to buy the corn and flour of Virginia they might pay fur it in 
American manufiictures ; and that again would destroy to that extent, 
the demand for the foreign-made fabric which South Carolina imports. 
It is apparent that Virginia would very soon become a manufacturing 
State, and would insist upon paying South Carolina, for whatever of 



622 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Britisli productions she might want, in Virginia manufactures. She 
would say, ' We will take your raw cotton, and spin and weave it ; but 
you must buy of us the cloth which you require, that is made from it. 
We will buy the silks and wines you get from France ; but you must 
take our iron and iron manufactures in exchange — and our wool and 
woolens. Our ships must be protected and encouraged to carry your 
productions, and to return your imports.' And if South Carolina would 
not accede to all this, Virginia and South Carolina would be quite as 
much at variance as the South and North now are. The homogeneous- 
ness would be utterly broken up. But worse than this — how would 
South Carolina herself get along? How could she stand the compe- 
tition with Alabama and Mississippi? With a less population, they 
would make by far the largest portion of the imports. How is South 
Carolina to obtain her equal share for consumption ? What one single 
thing does South Carolina produce, which Mississippi wants? For the 
same reason that would operate on Virginia, South Carolina also would 
inevitably be compelled to manufacture for her own consumption. In 
this new confederacy, with but one interest — the growth of raw mater- 
ial for exportation — she would be very far behind Alabama, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana, in the relative proportions of her productions. She 
would have nothing which either of these States wanted, with which 
to purchase her just share of the imports, and would be compelled to 
enter upon some new field of industry, to save herself from utter ruin. 

" South Carolina, with a population in round numbers of six hun- 
dred thousand, produces six millions for export ; while Mississippi, 
with three hundred and seventy-five thousand, produces fifteen mil- 
lions. Mississippi, therefore, as compared with South Carolina, 
imports as fifteen to six. Mississippi can import, and according to 
the Senator's argument, can consume at the rate of forty dollars a 
head for all her population ; while South Carolina can only import 
and consume at the rate of ten dollars, and Virginia less than three 
dollars. This would be a state of things which could not last. The 
inevitable result would be, that the northernmost States of the Con- 
federacy, utterly unable to obtain for all their labor, devoted to the 
growth of rude produce, sufficient for their wants in the manufactures 
of Europe, would, of absolute necessity, begin to supply themselves 
by home production ; and then the same questions of tariffs and pro- 
tection would grow up, and would finally be settled, just as they are 
now settled, in favor of home industry. There can be no other possi- 
ble result. 

" Can any Senator point out in what way those States, which are to 
be the smallest producers of exportable articles, are to be the largest 



GEORGE EVANS. 623 

consumers of the imports ? No, sir ; there is no possible way in 
which it can be done. Then, as between the Southern and Western 
confederacies, difficulties of no small embarrassment must grow up. 
I have already shown that the West must not be an exporter, nor a 
manufacturer ; for either of these destroys the whole foundation on 
which the prosperity of the South is to be built up. In such a state 
of things, how is the Western Confederacy to be supported? Whence 
its revenue? The honorable Senator says, that the Southern Confed- 
eracy, by imposing a duty of ten per cent, on the one hundred and 
twenty millions of imports, will obtain a revenue of twelve millions 
annually, fully sufficient for all its wants. But what is the West to 
do ? Supposing her comfederacy to need no more than twelve mil- 
lions also, how is she to obtain it? Admitting that she is able to 
consume half the imports, sixty millions, she will be compelled, if she 
raise her revenue on imports, to pay a duty, first, the ten per cent, 
already assessed in the South ; and next, twenty per cent, more for 
her own purposes — that is, six millions to the revenue of the South, 
and twelve millions to her own treasury, — in all, eighteen millions on 
an import of sixty millions. This calculation supposes, of course, 
that all imports are dutiable. Nothing is to be free. Neither tea 
nor coffee, nor salt, nor even specie. Everj' thing is to be taxed ; and 
the Western Confederacy is to have the great privilege of paying 6ne- 
half of all the revenue of the Southern Confederacy, and to pay, in 
the whole, fully as much on imports as was paid last year by all the 
United States together. 

" It is not easy to conjecture what amount of revenue will be neces- 
sary for the support of the ultra-montane confederation. What are 
to be its limits ? If it is to stretch across the Rocky Mountains, and 
wave its scepter on the shores of the Pacific, how many mounted 
regiments, how many troops, how many fortifications, how many mili- 
tary roads and military posts will be required for its security, no one 
can foretell. That its expenditures will be great can not be doubted. 
If the revenue be derived from duties on the imports which it makes 
from the Southern Confederacy, the Southern, in return, will begin to 
impose duties on the provisions and live snimals received from it. 
Then follow retaliatory regulations, counter legislation, border difficul- 
ties, and all the preliminary and incipient measures of animosity and 
strife. If, finally, from these, or from any causes, open war should 
break out between any two of these confederacies, or with any foreign 
■ nation, how is the prosperity and happiness of the Southern Confed- 
eracy to be affected? She. under no circumstances whatever, could 
engage in hostilities with England, her ' nafural markef.' Deprived 



624 EARLY IXDIA^^A TRIALS. 

of her only customer, cut oflf from all her accustomed supplies, a sin- 
gle year would prove utterly ruinous to her, Eemember, she is to 
have no intercourse with the impoverished North. She is not to be a 
navigating, and hence not a naval power. Her sole resource is in 
planting and in exchanging her rude produce with Europe. How 
long can she endure a total suspension of that intercourse, even 
though she should not be called upon to pay one dollar for defense, 
nor to have her coasts ravaged and her cities laid waste ? 

" Suppose, for a single moment, that the manufactures of cotton in 
the Middle and Eastern States should now be annihilated, as they are 
to be in the new state of things which the Senator imagines, thus 
removing all demand for cotton for home consumption ; and suppose, 
further, that without the perils, and expenses, and dangers of a foreign 
war, Europe, or England alone, should refuse to take another pound 
of cotton from the United States, what would be the condition of the 
South? If industry there is depressed now, if the profits of planting 
are small, if the South is becoming more and more impoverished, as 
the Senator asserts, what must it be in such a case ? And if thus 
brought to the verge of ruin, what would she be, if. superadded to 
all of this, she should be plunged into war with the most powerful 
nation of the world, and left alone, single-handed, to sustain the con- 
flict ? Let Senators consider for themselves. 

"Again : if instead of a war with England, or some other power of 
P]urope, the Southern Confederacy should be brought into collision 
with either of the others, deeply to be deplored certainly, but not 
impossible — -perhaps not improbable — does the South see, in such a 
calamity, nothing to be apprehended disastrous to Southern interests? 
She can not, on a sudden emergency, become very strong as a naval 
power, though her citizens be ever so brave and chivalrous. She 
must have allies who command the ocean ; and who but her best cus- 
tomers, and her sole manufacturers, the English ? British fleets will 
ride in her harbors and upon her coasts, if not British bayonets defend 
her soil. Does the Senator see any security for Southern institutions 
in such an alliance? Is British feeling, British policy, not to say 
philanthropy — is, 'the grasping ambition of England,' of which we 
hear so much, all to be calmed, allayed, soothed down, in favor of 
Southern peculiar institutions? Is British policy to take a new direc- 
tion ? Is that proud boast, in the inflated language of one of her 
orators, about' the sacred soil of Great Britain,' where the altar and 
the god fall together, and the chains are unriveted before ' the genius 
of universal emancipation,' to be all unsaid and all unwritten? But, 
independent of all interference or alliance in that quarter, are Southern 



GEORGE EVANS. 625 

interests more likely to be respected or protected, under the new con- 
federacies whicli are to be formed, than they are now? What at this 
moment, is the great security under which they rest? What but the 
Constitution of these United Stat-es? To that they cling — and under 
that, and that alone, they insist upon the enjoyment of all which it 
guaranties to them. Is there any thing in the signs of the times, in 
the condition of public opinion in this country, to induce the South 
to believe that if this Constitution is broken up, and new forms of gov- 
ernment are established, any greater security will be provided for their 
interests than is now furnished? Is that ' spirit of fanaticism,^ as the 
Senator has called it, which he supposes to prevail at the North, hos- 
tile to the interests of the South, to be allayed and quieted, when the 
restraints of the Constitution are removed, and when the anxious soli- 
citude for harmony, and peace, and fraternal regard, which animate 
much the larger portion of the Free States, is turned into alienation 
and distrust? What remedies does the Senator expect will be volun- 
tarily provided for the escape of fugitives 'held 'to service,' in the 
language of the Constitution, by the new Government to be instituted 
in the Free States? No, sir; when all connections and mutual obli- 
gations are dissolved, all Constitutional restraints abrogated, the South 
will in vain look for any relief or support of its institutions from the 
neighboring confederacies ? 

" A half century would not go by — no, not the half of it, if such 
a deplorable event as that which the Senator supposes should take 
place — before the South would exhibit, not the flowery and smiling 
fields which he has pictured, not the wealth and prosperity and hap- 
piness which he dreams of — but decay and desolation, and dreary 
wastes and poverty, of which he has no conception. No nation, as I 
endeavored to show yesterday, ever did, no nation ever can, or ever 
will, become permanently great, or powerful, or wealthy, whose whole 
labor is devoted to one, and only one pursuit, especially if that be the 
production of rude materials, which other nations enjoy the profit of 
manufacturing. It is against all history, against all philosophy, 
against every doctrine of political economy, which has ever found 
respectable support any where. The great and only security for the 
South is to remain a component part, a great part of a nation where 
diversity of interest and of pursuits prevail — where, by free intercom- 
munication and exchange, the profits of labor and industry in all the 
sections will be equalized, and where the benefit of one promotes the 
benefit of all. But the Senator. His faith is strong against all expe- 
rience, against the history of all nations, against all the warnings and 
admonitions, and legacies bequeathed to us by the fathers of the 
40 



626 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

country — the patriots and sages and statesmen of the purer and earlier 
age of the Republic. Sir, this matter was early considered, early dis- 
cussed. The value of internal commerce as a bond of union, the 
diversity of soil, climate, and pursuit, as a source of wealth and 
national strength, occupied much of the patriotic thought and patriotic 
hope of the framers of the Constitution. 

" Mr. President, the honorable Senator in his estimate of the advan- 
tages to be gained by the South, from a separate confederacy, makes 
no account of national strength and national renown. He forgets that 
ordeal of fire through which we passed in the establishment of our 
independence, and through which we could never have gone if we had 
not been united. The glorious past he leaves out of view altogether, 
while his ardent imagination revels in the brighter visions of the 
future. Let the separation of which he speaks take place, and that 
day on whose annual return ten thousand times ten thousand Ameri- 
can hearts beat higher and quicker — that day which first beheld us an 
independent nation — is to be blotted from the calendar. For the 
South, at least, it can bring no joyous recollections, no patriotic, 
heart-stirring emotions. The achievements of our ancestors are all to 
be forgotten. Camden and King's Mountain may indeed remain 
within the limits of the new confederacy — but none of the renown and 
the glory which attach to them will belong to it. All of gallantry and 
prowess and noble-bearing which were then displayed, all of high- 
renown, ever-enduring fame, honor, glory, there acquired ; belonged, 
and ever will belong, in all history, to United ^ United^ United America. 
It can never be divided — God grant that it may never be obliterated 
and forgotten. No account is to be taken of the glorious spectacle 
which we have presented to the world, in the solution of the great 
problem of the capacity of mankind for self-government — no account 
of the great advance which has taken place in government, and the 
progress of free institutions all over the world, for our example. 

" The various events of our unparalleled Revolution, the renown 
achieved in that momentous struggle — the veneration for the great 
a,nd good; the patriots whose fame is our country's inheritance; the 
sacred bequest of liberty, unity, strength, purchased with so much 
blood, and so much treasure, are all, all to be abandoned, all sacri- 
ficed, if, in the providence of God, so deplorable an event should 
occur, as that which the Senator, for the purposes of illustration, has 
supposed. But no, sir, none of these things will happen. I have no 
belief that the honorable Senator himself contemplates or desires such 
a calamity — I have no belief that his honored State entertains the 
slightest wish, the faintest hope, for a separation of our Union. T am 



GEORGE EVANS. 627 

sure I should do liim, and it, great injustice to attribute sucli a pur- 
pose to either. No man is reckless enough to covet the fame, the 
eternity of infamy, which must await him who shall bring upon this 
happy land the desolation and war which such an event must produce. 
The adventurous youth who undertook for a single day to guide the 
chariot of the sun, paid for his temerity with the forfeit of his life. 
Happy will it be for him who, impelled by a mad ambition, shall kin- 
dle up our system in universal conflagration, to escape with so light a 
penalty. He will live, live in the reproaches and execrations of man- 
kind, in all time. He will live in history — not on the page where are 
inscribed the names of the benefactors of our race, not with the good, 
the loise^ the great; but with the enemies of the liberties and happiness 
of mankind, with the oppressors of their race, with the scourgcs^hom 
God has permitted to desolate nations, and to quench hunian happiness 
in tears and blood. Sir, we are one. We can not be divided. "We 
have a common country, a common history, common distinction, 
renown, pre-eminence. They all belong to one, and one only. We 
have common and mutual interests which bind us together, and which 
can not be severed. Bands stronger than iron and steel hold us in 
indissoluble connection. 

" ' One sacred oath has tied 
Our loves ; one destiny our life shall guide, 
Nor wild, nor deep, our common way divide.' " 



628 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

IMPORTANT CASE OF MONOMANIA. 

The great case in the Circuit Court of the United States for the 
district of Indiana, of the heirs of James B. M'Call against Willard 
Carpenter and John A. Reitz, having been compromised, it may be 
interesting to the professional reader and the student of medical juris- 
prudence to sketch the facts and questions that arose in the case. The 
large amount of property, the character of the case, the length of time 
occupied at the several terms of the court and in the Supreme Court 
of the United States, gave to the case an interest second to no case 
ever tried in the State. It was an action of ejectment brought by the 
heirs of James B. M'Call against Carpenter and Reitz for a large 
number of lots in Lamasco city that had been sold by Hugh Stewart 
to them, claiming title under a deed executed to him by James B. M' 
Call on the 18th of June, 1840. The main question in the case was 
whether James B. M'Call at the time of the execution of this deed 
had sufficient capacity to execute it understandingly. On the part 
of the heirs it was insisted that their ancestor was insane at the time 
he sold the lots and executed the deed to Hugh Stewart. The defen- 
dants, counsel placed the defense upon the ground that, admitting that 
M'Call had hallucinations of mind, before and after the execution of 
the deed, on some subjects, still he was sane on the subject of the sale 
of these lots and the execution of the deed in question. M'Call, the 
ancestor, was proved to have been laboring under a state of melancholy 
before the execution of the deed, growing out of the depreciation of 
property and the loss of his wife. About the time of its execution he 
showed strong hallucination on the subject of famine, starvation, and 
poverty, and valuelessness of land and general depression in monetary 
aifairs, and some mouths afterward committed suicide by taking lau- 
danum and cutting his throat. The question was whether this mania, 
or partial derangement, embraced the sale of the lots and the execu- 
tion of the deed in question. There was a large amount of evidence 
on that point, which it is not important to state. There were four 
experts examined— Dr. J. S.Athon, principal of the Insane Asylum, Dr. 
T, B. Elliott, formerly physician of the Asylum, Dr. Ritcbey, one of the 
trustees of the Asylum and Dr. Barton, of Washington, Daviess county. 
These witnesses were separated and examined at length before the jury. 
Upou some points they agreed, and on others they widely differed. 
It was evident, in the examination, that the positions that Dr. Athon 
and Elliott held for years in the Insane Asylum, made them more 
familiar with the subject of insanity than the other experts, and the 



IMPORTANT CASE OF MONOMANIA. 629 

main questions were directed by the counsel to them. Upon the fol- 
lowing questions they agreed : 

" First. That a monomaniac/ upon the subject of his delusions, can 
not perform a continued series of business acts in a common-sense man- 
ner like persons of unquestioned capacity. 

" Second. That where the question is doubtful as to what the delu- 
sion embraced, the fact that he acted continuously like a sane man on 
a particular subject, would show that his delusion did not embrace 
that matter." 

Dr. Athon and Dr. Elliott, the experts, after hearing all the evi- 
dence in the case, differed upon the following question j '• Whether 
from all the evidence you have heard in this case, including the deed, 
description of the lands, letters and book accounts of M'Call, yo\i 
would consider that James B. M'Call, at the time he executed the deed 
to Hugh Stewart, had sufficient mental capacity on the subject, to 
understandingly sell and convey the lots in question to Hugh Stew- 
art? " Dr. Athon. — " I believe he had not." Dr. Elliott.—" I am well 
satisfied he had." This was intended as a test question for the experts, 
to go to the jury with their answers. It will be seen, with all their 
great experience and knowledge on the subject that they differed widely 
upon the application of the evidence before the Court and jury to the 
case on trial. Here it is that the greatest difficulty always occurs, the 
Court and jury have to determine the case at last, not merely upon the 
opinion of experts, but upon the whole evidence, and the law of the 
case. There is not so much difficulty in determining what the law is 
or what facts have been proved, as to give the law and facts their pro- 
per application to the case before the Court and jury. The following 
general principles are laid down in the books. 

All men are presumed in law to be sane, their acts and deeds valid, 
and the burden of proof to impeach, or deny the one or the other, lies 
upon the party who sets up insanity, or denies the legal force of the deed. 

Insanity may be either total, affecting the mind on all subjects, and 
rendering it incompetent to act sanely on any subject, or it may be 
partial, only insane upon some subjects, and entirely sane on others. 
In the case of total insanit}", all acts done while the person remained 
insane would be void, but in that case there may be lucid intervals, 
when all acts done during those intervals would be valid. Here again 
the proof changes, the presumption of sanity being rebutted by proof 
of insanity. It is incumbent on the party setting up the lucid inter- 
val to prove it clearly, to make the acts done during such lucid inter- 
val legal, as the presumption of law iS, once insane always insane, 
until the contrary is proved. 



630 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

Partial Insanity is where the mind is laboring under illusions, or 
hallucinations, on some subjects, while it is sane on others. This was 
the case of M'Call, as agreed by all the witnesses, experts as well as 
others. The books as well as the learned experts, agreed that a mono- 
maniac, or a person deranged on some subjects, has no lucid intervals 
on those subjects until there was an entire cure, but that there might 
be a remission of the symptoms, to be revived the moment the chord 
was touched that produced them. The great difficulty in such cases, 
is in determining what the particular monomania or hallucination em- 
braces, and what it does not. In this case, M'Call was evidently a 
monomaniac upon the subject of a famine in the land, and the 
approaching poverty of the people, and that himself and family would 
come to want. But did that embrace the sale and conveyance of his 
own lands, reserving in his deed a part, where he had acted as a sane 
and business-like man ? Upon that point, the experts as well as the 
intelligent witnesses, differed ; and that would have been the question 
before the Court and jury, had the case progressed to a conclusion. 

Experts. The books on Medical Jurisprudence lay it down as a 
principle for the government of trials of insanity, that the opinions 
of experts are of a much higher order than the evidence of others. 
Has not this idea done much mischief by being received in the gen- 
eral terms in which it is laid down. It may be true, all other things 
and the knowledge of facts being equal, but is far from being so where 
the expert has only learned the state of the mind of the insane person 
from the mouths of witnesses, without seeing him or knowing the 
change that had taken place in his manners, habits, conversation and 
actions when passing from a state of sanity to that of insanity. Every 
case of insanity that has found its way into our Asylum, has been 
detected, not only by experts, but by the family and friends at home, 
before the patient was sent to the Asylum. It was at home in the com- 
mon business associations of the insane person, that his insanity, whe- 
ther general or partial, was discerned. It was there that the change 
would be seen. It may be admitted, that were the family and friends 
experts, the nature and extent of the malady would be more distinctly 
noticed. But the question at issue is, whether the mere opinions of 
experts, without a full and minute knowledge of all the facts, and 
without ever having seen the patient, should be held higher in law 
than the evidence of the intelligent observer who had seen the patient 
and his changes, and their operation on his mind from time to time. 
The opinions of experts must always be received, and should be enti- 
tled to due weight ; but should like all other evidence, be closely exam- 
ined by the Court and jury, with the other testimony in the cause, but 



IMPORTANT CASE OF MONOMANIA. 631 

should not be held to over-ride the other witnesses who testify to facts, 
and from those facts give their opinions, unless the opportunities of 
the experts have been equal to those of the other witnesses to know 
the facts of the case. Then their scientific knowledge would place 
them upon the higher ground. 

The great danger of receiving the opinions of experts, as of a higher 
character of evidence, without proving a sufficient basis for the opin- 
ions to rest upon, is strongly illustrated by the case given in Wharton's 
Medical Jurisprudence ; where a sane man was confined in the Insane 
Asylum for weeks, and treated as a raving maniac, without discovering 
that anger was not mania. The case, as given by Wharton, is both 
amusing to the ordinary reader, and instructive to those engaged in 
the trial of cases of insanity. 



632 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

THE AUTHOR. 

As the passenger leaves the city of Philadelphia on one of the 
splendid steamers that ply between the city and Trenton, on the Del- 
aware river, as he passes the forests of masts and lines of shipping, 
and casts his eyes over the city, and sees the steeples of her hundred 
churches, piercing the clouds, his mind will involuntarily look back 
to the days when William Penn laid off its beautiful streets and 
squares, between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, when not even a 
hut of the fisherman had been built, where that magnificent city now 
stands, where stood the old elm tree, under which the first treaty with 
the Indians was made, by the great proprietor, he will exclaim, " How 
great the change ! " My grandparents on both sides were friends 
and associates of William Penn, crossed the Atlantic from England 
with him, and belonged to the same society. The steamer as she runs 
up the Delaware passes one of the most beautiful countries, on the 
Pennsylvania side, in the world, highly cultivated. On the Jersey 
side it is more wild and picturesque. On the Pennsylvania side stands 
the beautiful city of Bristol. On the Jersey shore stand Burlington 
and Bordentown. Near the latter is seen in a deeply-shaded grove 
the mansion of the late ex-King Joseph Bonaparte, as it rose from 
the ashes of his former splendid residence. The city of Trenton, the 
capital of New Jersey, stands prominent on the right. The more 
humble Morrisville covers the left bank at the falls of the Delaware, 
where the permanent arch-bridge unites the two cities. 

When but a mere youth, as I was approaching Morrisville in the 
dusk of the evening, I heard the cry of fire. Just as I reached the 
center of the town, I saw a man walking upon the top of a house, 
bucket in hand, without a hat, sprinkling water upon the roof. A 
gentleman in the crowd asked me if I knew who he was ; and re- 
marked — "this is Gen. Moreau, of France." The General came 
down after a short time, and I had a full view of him. I looked upon 
the hero of Hohenlinden at the time with much interest. He was 
short and thick, dark complexion, black hair eyes and whiskers, stern 
countenance. He afterward fell by a cannon shot at the battle of 
Dresden, in 1813, while fighting with the allies against the French 
army under the command of Napoleon. 

At Trenton the tide ceases ; the rocky shoals and rapid currents of 
the Delaware commence. The traveler leaves the steamer and takes 
the cars. Some twelve miles above the city of Trenton, the current 
of the river becomes still more rapid ; the water dashes over Well's 
Falls; ^^ Smith's Island'^ divides their channel at the base. That 



THE AUTHOR. 633 

Island belonged to my grandfather, and descended to my ftitter. 
Here I must stop and let the traveler pass on to look at the mountain 
scenery on the upper Delaware, as it winds its serpentine way north 
to the State of New York, where he finds its source. I have arrived 
at the place of my birth on the 23d of October, in the year 1794 ; the 
beautiful Delaware, with its clear waters, rapid currents, floating rafts, 
fine shad, and beautiful stviped bass, stretches away in the distance 
from my father's farm, the Jersey hills rising one above another to the 
clouds on the east ; on the west a beautiful ridge ; on the north 
Bowman's Hill. Near the junction of the hills, was found many 
years ago a few acres of level ground in the woods. The early set- 
tlers, my father among them, selected this spot for their school-house. 
It was a most solitary location, only found by the school-boys by their 
winding paths from their valley and mountain homes. The neighbors 
met, the ground was prepared, and the school-house built. 

The building was twenty by twenty-six feet, of undressed mountain 
rock, one low story, four windows of eight-by-tcn glass on each side, 
and two at each end, a continuous desk around the wall on three sides, 
with a corresponding bench for the scholars. When I first entered 
the school-house, at the age of six years, in the year 1800 — I dis- 
tinctly remember the day — with my little dinner-basket on my arm, 
the master was sitting at his desk on the right of the door, and a large 
bucket of water on the left. Our playing grounds were cleared 
smooth from surface rock. Our path led us to the top of " Bowman^s 
Hill," where we had a splendid view of the Delaware and surround- 
ing country for many miles. I have often thought, in after years, 
that these views in my youth exercised a powerful influence over my 
mind. The same feelings that prompted me in early life to break 
over the bounds of my valley home, pushed me on to look over the 
towering Alleghany into the beautiful valley of the Mississippi. It 
is not my purpose to touch my youthful days, as they would present 
nothing beyond the common occurrences attending farmer boys. 
However, on one Saturday afternoon, when I was twelve years of age, 
I accompanied Isaac Fox, a young man about eighteen, to the Dela- 
ware to bathe, at Opdyke's Ferry, near my father's fiirm. There were 
some dozen boys swimming when I got there. Without waiting for 
Isaac, I went in and swam out to the boys. I was a fine swimmer. 
In a few minutes I took the cramp in one leg, and under I went, the 
water being about ten feet deep, and as clear as crystal. I rose, 
alarmed the boys, and went down again ; rose the second time, and 
sunk ; then came the last struggle. I remember it distinctly. The 
breathing ceased, the water run back from my mouth, the pressure on 



634 EAELY INDIANA TRIALS. 

my lungs was painful, my head rolled over on the gravelly bottom, 
with my face to the West. My mind was clear, as my eyes closed on 
a bright sun, some hours above the mountain top. I fell, as it were, 
into a sound sleep. Some thirty minutes afterwards, I felt very sick, 
the water was running from my mouth, my eyes seemed to open invol- 
untarily. There stood Isaac bending over me, his clothes dripping 
wet. He heard the cry of the boys when'I was drowning, ran down 
to the bank of the river, learned where I went down, floated over me, 
saw me lying quietly on the bottom. I had been there near ten min- 
utes. He dived down, brought me up, floated me to the shore, took me 
unconscious to a tavern just by, and rolled and rubbed me into life. 
As I opened my eyes, he cried aloud for joy. A few minutes longer 
under water, and I could not have been resuscitated. 

The school-boys one evening roped a little intoxicated Irishman, 
who happened to be passing by. He got very angry, and named the 
school-house Lurgan, after a place of that name in Ireland, and from 
that day it went by no other name. I saw it when after an absence 
of twenty years in the West, I visited the home of my youth. I looked 
upon it with deep feelings, as my Alma Mater. I thought of the 
beautiful lines of Dr. Carney, of Tennessee. How true to life ! How 

striking ! 

•' Hail, native solitary woods 1 
Ye clear unnavigated floods, 

And forests wild; 
Ye valleys louesorae, dark and deep, 
Ye mountains craggy, high and steep, 

Romantic piled ! 
"Oft in my solitary walks, 
I've started, as my voice was echoing through your rocks, 

When but a boy ! 
Astonishing the silent wood, 
While little Tray who by me stood. 

Barked out for joy. 

" Ye happy days now gone, adieu ! 
But dearest spot, ere long on you, 

I'll drop some tears! 
But then your shrubs will trees be grown^ 
Your trees by storms will be o'erblown, 

Or changed by years ! 
" My school companions will be men, 
My dear loved parents may ere then 

With age decay ! 
The school-house moldering stand alone ; 
The school path be with weeds o'ergrown, 

Or ploughed away 1 " 



THE AUTHOE. 635 

My school companions were the grey-lieaded men around me. Our 
once united, happy family were separated forever. My beloved 
parents, Thomas and La3titia Smith, had long since gone to the 
reward of the just. The farm on which I was raised had passed into 
the possession of strangers. The choice fruit that had been cultivated 
by my father I saw plucked from the branches of the old trees by 
other hands. New towns had sprung up on the lines of the public 
works; new seminaries had been opened and Lui'gan school-house 
"moldering stood alone." I turned from the scenes of my boyhood, 
visited the grave of my father at Wrightstown, and of my mother at 
Byberry, dropped a parting tear over their slumbering dust, and left 
for the Great West, deeply impressed with the transitory nature of all 
earthly things, and without any desire ever to repeat the visit ; it was 
to me, like looking for the last time upon the face of a departed 
friend, before the closing coffin concealed it forever. Who could 
ask the lid to be raised, to take another look ? Farewell to the 
scenes of my youth ! farewell forever, I shall never see you more ! 

SENATE CHAMBER. 

Shortly after, I was sitting on the side sofa, in the Senate Chamber, 
at Washington city, in conversation with Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and 
Col. Preston. The subject of education came up. Mr. Clay had 
given us a graphic sketch of his early education in the Slashes of Vir- 
ginia. Mr. Webster followed with an interesting account of his New 
Hampshire course of studies, not forgetting the hanging of the scythe 
on the apple tree for his father. Col. Preston amused us with anec- 
dotes of his boyish days. As he closed, turning his eye on me, 
"Where were you educated, Mr. Smith?" "At Lurgan." "Where 
is that? " " Lurgan stands at the foot of Bowman's Hill, on the Del- 
aware Ptiver." " I never heard of it before." " See the difference 
between Northern and Southern men. I have frequently heard of the 
South Carolina college." Mr. Webster, without the least idea of the 
character and grade of Lurgan, where nothing had ever been taught 
but the common rudiments of an English education, joined in with 
me. The conversation turned upon the ignorance of the South of the 
literary institutions of the North, and the great importance of a social 
interchange of addresses by distinguished men at the commencement 
of colleges, of both North and South. The idea was readily embraced 
by those distinguished men. 

This sketch is designed to encourage my young readers to persevere 
from youth to old age. We live in a glorious country, whose institu- 
tions are open to our highest aspirations ; where there can be no priy- 



636 EARLY INDIANA TRIALS. 

ileged classes ; where mind is left free to combat and act upon mind ; 
where perseverance, integrity, and talents, will surely be rewarded in 
the end. Our property is not subject to feudal restraints, nor our 
high places to hereditary entailed successions. All is as free as the 
air we breathe, to the worthy aspirant. In my early days, there were 
but few colleges in the land. Many of the distinguished men were 
compelled to enter upon public and professional life without the 
advantages of a thorough education. They came from the common 
schools and were afterward graduated in the colleges of experience. 
They were common -sense, practical men, with minds that made great 
men of them in despite of their defective early education. I do not 
wish to be understood, here or elsewhere in these sketches, as standing 
opposed to a collegiate education. I only contend that the English 
foundation must be laid strong and firm, before the superstructure is 
erected, and if one ur the other is to be neglected, let it be that which 
is the least essential to the success of every-day life. Times have 
changed in my day. The cause of education has been cherished. 
Common, select, free, high schools, seminaries and colleges, may be 
found every where planted over the length and breadth of the land, 
every facility is now presented to the rising generation, to obtain a 
first-class education, and all other things being eqvial, with proper 
efforts they ought to come up to a much higher standard than their 
fathers. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 



PAGE. 

AsHBURTON, Lord, 452 

Agricultural Address, 283 

Ashburton Treaty, 358 

A Small Victory dearly Purchased, 27 

A Lawyer's Maneuver, 31 

A Dogberry, 32 

A Family Difficulty Settled, 33 

A Queer Client, 41 

A Case of Misunderstanding, 48 

A Misnomer Case, 49 

Au Anecdote, 53 

A Hero Charged with Hog Stealing, 63 

A Horse-Thief Catcher, 67 

A Political Preacher in a Fix, 68 

A Political Jury, 72 

An Early Legislature in Indiana,.. 76 

An Electioneering Operation, 77 

A Great Hypocrite, 78 

Anecdote of Gov. Whitcomb, 79 

A Challenge Trial, 82 

A Brave Indian, 117 

Apolitical Libel Suit, 120 

A Lawyer Fined in Court, 129 

An Indian Horse-Race, 170 

A Tight Fit, 340 

A Fight in the Senate, 341 

A Slave Case — Slander, 342 

Accidents by Flood and Field, 176 

Abstinence, Total, 433 

A Goose Case, 23 

A Mal-Practice Case, 39 

An Infant in Court, 73 

Adams, .John Quincy, 280 

A Panther 333 



PAGE. 

A New Mode of Procuring a Sig- 
nature, 57 

A New Mode of Effecting a Recon- 
ciliation, 88 

A Hymn in the Legislature, 335 

Allen, William, 589 

Archer, William S., 613 

Alley, Dodridge, Legislature, 333 

Bdrgess and Daniel, 90 

Benton, Thomas H., 188 

Buckwheat-Straw Principle, 333 

Buchanan, James, 191 

Bigger, Samuel, Gov., 349 

Beef Case, Jonesand Harper, 11 

Bradburn, Dr. John, Trial for Mur- 
der, 15 

Byles, Dr., and Jemmy Johnson,... 60 

British Authorities in Court, 122 

Bridge's Trial and Execution, 178 

Bigger and Howard Election, 349 

Bright, Michael G., 369 

Bright, Jesse D., 373 

Brown, William J., 366 

Boone, Daniel, 468 

Bcecher, Henry Ward, Rev., 93 

Bali-Room Music in Early Times,.. 172 

Breach of Marriage Promise, 29 

Blarney Stone, 49 

Bad Consequences of Changing 

Shirts, 74 

Burgess and M'Duffie, lOl 

Berrian, John M'Pherson, 490 

Brown, Illram, 170 

(637) 



638 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Brown, James T., 129 

Blake, James, 587 

Boz — Dickens, 597 

Erough, John, 588 

Bonaparte, Charles Louis, 590 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 590 

Beard, John, 583 

Brooks, Erastus, 446 

Barbour, Lucian, 561 

Bell, John, 613 

CALHOn.v, John C, 245 

Choate, Rufug, 235 

Conventions, St. Louis, 208 

Culbertson Case, 231 

Coroner Connery Outdone, G9 

Conclusive Speech on CanalBill,... 70 

Crocket, David, Col., 105 

Carolina, North, Intelligence of,.... 105 

Corwin and Jennifer, 107 

Cookman, George G., Rev., 109 

Court, Supreme, United States, 137 

Court, Supreme, Indiana, 144 

Claypool, Newton, 105 

Coburn, Henry P., 367 

Clay, Henry, 374 

Coyner, Martin L., Trial for Murder, 339 

Citizens' Meeting, 113 

Clark, Martin G., Judge, 160 

Congress, Twentieth, 88 

Conner, John 174 

Conner, William, 174 

Crittenden, John J., 690 

Close of Caucus, 593 

Coe, Isaac, Dr., 587 

Cass, Lewis, 538 

Cilley and Graves, 598 

Carpenter, Willard, 538 

Colfax, Schuyler, 004 

Corwin, Thomas, 508 

Dow, Lorenzo, 98 

Dunn, George G., 361 

Doctor Burr, 12 

Dodging a Fee, 65 

Dog and Damages, 119 

Durbin, John P., Rev 124 

Dumont, Jolin, 131 

Davis, John G., 490 



PAGE. 

Distinguished Pioneers, 172 

Davis, Edward, Trial for Murder, 337 

Dunn, Isaac, l73 

Davidson, Andrew, Judge., 146 

Dewey, Charles, Judge, 145 

Doctor Chinn, 12 

Davis, John W., 912 

Douglass, Stephen A., 534 

De Joinville, Prince,... 597 

Dutch Witness, 335 

Dunn, George H., 164 

Dill, James, Gen., 172 

Ellsworth, Henry L., 480 

Election, Senatorial, 1836, 141 

Ewing, John, 362 

Early Indiana, 5 

Early Practice, 43 

Electioneering Trips, 80 

Exciting Scenes in the House, 102 

Early Condition of Indiana, 116 

Early Indiana Lawyers, 117 

Early Indiana Preachers, 98 

Election, Senatorial, 1842, 353 

Evidence, Circumstantial, 170 

Evening with Lord Ashburton, 452 

Evans, George, 616 

Fillmore, Millard, 547 

First Fee, 10 

Fuller, Trial and Execution of, 8 

First Speech in the Legislature,.... 65 

First Speech in Congress, 108 

Floy, James, Rev., 127 

Facts for the People — the Other 

Side of, 298 

Fox and Ashburton, 363 

Fugitive Case — John Freeman, 278 

First Election of Officers, 85 

Frazer, Betty, 28 

Fremont, John C, 571 

Franklin's Staff, 269 

Fields, Samuel, Trial of, 23 

Fletcher, Calvin, 582 

Fletcher, Calvin, an Anecdote of,... 54 

Greeley, Horace, 446 

Gales, Joseph, 464 

Gaston, Hiram, Trial of, 338 



INDEX. 



639 



PAGE. 

Gregg, Milton, 447 

Gookins, Judge, 147 

Graves and Cilley, 598 

Gurley, Pliineas D., Rev., 585 

Heller, Isaac, Trial and Execu- 
tion of, 261 

Hudson, Trial and Execution of,.... 55 

Horse Thieves, Trial of, 160 

Husband and Wife, 180 

Hendricks, William, Gov., 86 

Hendricks, John, 367 

Herrod, William, 369 

Hicks, Elias, 430 

Helm, William, •. 175 

Howard, Tilgman A., Gen., 166 

Huntington, Elisha M., Judge, 147 

Hale, John P., 544 

HoUoway, David P., 447 

Huntington, .Jabez W., 615 

Harrison, Gen., and Tecumseh, 227 

Holman, Jesse L., Judge.. 84 

Henderson Celebration, 200 

Hager, John, 583 

Hour Rule, 596 

Indian ISIurders in 1824, 51 

Itinerant Methodist Preachers, 97 

Inaugurationof Martin Van Buren, 345 

Identity of a Horse, 277 

Important Case of Monomania, 628 

Jackson, Gen., and Henry Clay,... 13.S 

Jennings, Jonathan, Gov., 86 

Johnson, .lemmy, 60 

John, Jonathan, 174 

Kennedy, Andrew, 609 

Kentucky Practice, 47 

Keeping Order in Court, 25 

Lane, Amos, 87 

Law, John, 361 

Linn, Lewis F., 238 

Lockhart, James, 360 

Legible Hands, 62 

Lane, Henry S., 379 

Law Practice and Lawyers, 184 

Letter from Henry Clay, 251 

Letter to Henry Clay, 252 



PAGE. 

Letter from Joseph Story, 257 

Letter from Henry Clay, 260 

Letter from Lewis Cass, 257 

Letter from A. C. Dodge, Gen., 259 

Lagrange Celebration, Tennessee,.. 203 

Lawyers of Early Indiana, 117 

Memphis, Visit to, 200 

Mansfield, Lord, 37 

Militia System Ended, 44 

Monroe's Second Election, 85 

M'Duffie and Bates, 91 

Maguire, Douglass, i 366 

Mih-oy, Samuel, Gen., 480 

Marshall, Joseph G., 166 

Morris, Morris, 173 

Monroe, Hugh, Trial for Murder, ... 21 

M'Kinney, John, Judge, 145 

M'Carty, Enoch, 163 

M'Carty, Jonathan, 163 

Musgrove and Martin, Trial of, 277 

Mace, Daniel, 612 

New Assignment 130 

Noble, James, and John C. Calhoun, 101 

Noble, Noah, Gov., 87 

New'man, John S., 132 

Owen, Robert Dale, 370 

Outwitting a Sheriff, 28 

O'Kane, John, Elder, 586 

O'Brian, Michael, 9 

Pierce, Franklin, 542 

Pettit, John, 479 

ProfSt, George H., 359 

Preslon, William C, 265 

Prejudicial Effects of Evidence, 41 

Pathetic Speech Spoiled, 73 

Perils of a Congressional Campaign, 80 

Prominent Men of Early Indiana,.. 163 

Poets of Indiana, 211 

Parker, Samuel W., 481 

Pennington, Dennis, 394 

Personal Sketches, 172 

Parke, Benjamin, .Judge, 147 

Perkins, Samuel E., Judge, 145 

Preachers in Early Times, 98 

Polk, James K., 540 



640 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

QuARLES, William, 338 

Eace Track, Washington, 356 

Regulator Case on White River,... 59 

Russey, James L., 395 

Railroads of Indiana, 421 

Railroad, Pacific, Speech, St. Louis, 400 

Rives, William C, 396 

Reed, James G., 393 

Ray, James B., Gov., 86 

Roach, A. L., Judge, 146 

Rariden, .James, 164 

Rayner, Kenneth, 614 

S.'ffiTH, Caleb B., 408 

Southard, Samuel L., 195 

Seargent Taddy, 37 

Sharp Practice, 46 

State Organization, 84 

Sawyer, Trial and Execution of,... 177 

Stopping Reports, 131 

Sample, Samuel C, 393 

Steel, George K., 394 

Sang Hoe Case, 13 

Slander Case, 19 

Smith, Thomas, 611 

Smith, Thomas L., Judge, 146 

Stuart, William G., Judge, 146 

Sullivan, Jeremiah, Judge 145 

Speech at Paducah, Ky., 200 

Speech at Memphis, 201 

Sketches of Nature, 449 

Sketches of Supreme Judges, 145 

Sharpe, Ebenezei', 586 

Smith, Jeremiah, Judge, 582 

Tyler, John, 148 

Tippecanoe, Battle of, 227 

Teeth in Testimony, 25 

Trover for Stealing a Log Chain,... C2 

Tariff Discussion, 90 

Turkey in Court and on the Table.. 161 



PAGE. 

Telegraph, 413 

Traveling the Circuit, 168 

Thompson, Richard W., 456 

Test, John, 86 

Test, Charles H., 129 

Taney and M'Lane, Judges, 156 

Tipton, John, 478 

The Author, 632 

Trial of a Revolutionary Soldier,... 23 

The Times, 525 

United States Supreme Court, 156 

Van Buren, Martin 658 

Vance, Samuel, C, Capt., 172 

Vawter, John, 393 

Variety, 35 

Wright, Silas, 204 

Woodbury, Levi, 274 

Walker, Robert, J., 243 

Washington's Sword, 269 

Weller's Case, 43 

Wadsworth, Charles, Rev., 95 

Whitcomb, James, Gov., 351 

Wright, Governor, and Nicholas 

MCarty, 352 

Wallace, David, Gov., 87 

Webster, Daniel, 459 

AVas it a Fight ? 335 

AVhite, Alberts., 479 

Washington, Bushrod, Judge, 138 

Wright, Gov., and John A. Matson, 352 

Wright, Jos. A., Gov., 352 

Watts, John, Judge, 173 

Woods, Nicholas, Trial For Murder, 337 

Winthrop, Robert C, 615 

Wylie, Andrew, Dr., 585 

Yandes, Simon, , 396 

Young, Alexander, Trial for Mur- 
der, 16 

Youthful Excursion, 443 



